MOSCOW, July 17 (RAPSI) - A medical examiner’s office in Florida claims to have been ordered by the FBI to refrain from releasing an autopsy report on the death of Ibragim Todashev, who was shot and killed in May during an FBI interview connected with the pending Boston Marathon bombing investigation, Boston Globe reported Tuesday.
The report cited Tony Miranda, forensic records coordinator for Florida’s Orange and Osceola counties, as having said: “The FBI has informed this office that the case is still under active investigation and thus not to release the document.” The autopsy report has reportedly been “ready for release” since July 8.
Todashev was shot and killed during an FBI interview at his Orlando home on May 22 in connection with his alleged ties with Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
The FBI Boston Division acknowledged the death the same day, releasing a statement explaining that during the course of an interview connected with the pending Boston Marathon bombing investigation, the interviewee had initiated a violent confrontation, adding that: "During the confrontation, the individual was killed and the agent sustained non-life threatening injuries."
A week later on May 29, a more substantive follow-up statement issued by the FBI's National Press Office identified Todashev by name and outlined an action plan for its pending review of the incident: "The FBI is conducting a review of the May 22, 2013 shooting of Ibragim Todashev, 27, which occurred at Todashev's residence... The FBI's shooting incident review team interviews witnesses and gathers information regarding the shooting incident for presentation to a Shooting Incident Review Group (SIRG), which consists of members from the FBI and the Department of Justice. The SIRG examines all of the information and determines the reasonableness of the application of deadly force in accordance with the Department of Justice's deadly force policy and the law."
The Florida division of Islamic advocacy group the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) then filed a complaint with the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) calling for an "independent, thorough and transparent investigation... into the FBI's shooting of [Todashev] after several hours of interrogation at his home."
During a recent interview with RIA Novosti, Todashev's father said he would sue the US authorities over what he describes as the "extrajudicial execution" of his son.
Speaking with RIA Novosti in Grozny, Abdulbaki Todasahev said, "FBI agents came to my son's house and executed him, without filing any charges, with no lawyer, with no eyewitnesses. All I want is to obtain truth, justice and a punishment for those responsible, and so I intend to file a lawsuit against the authorities of that country [the US] to establish a truthful picture of what really happened."