4.Naida Suleimanova — Direct
258 linesNAIDA SULEIMANOVA, Sworn
COURT CLERK: Have a seat. State your name and spell your first and last name for the record.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Naida Suleimanova.
THE COURT: Go ahead.
MR. FICK: N-a-i-d-a. And Suleimanova, I think we already have. Thank you.
If I could request the screen again, your Honor?
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. FICK:
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Good morning.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: 1976.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Republic of Dagestan, Gunibsky Region, the village of Chokh.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: I lived in Chokh till I was probably three and then in Kaspiysk till I turned 25. And since then I've been living in Moscow.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Yes.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: I'm a cashier at a gas station.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Yes.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Twenty.
THE COURT: I don't have your feed.
INTERPRETER: With Jahar? I'm sorry. Can you repeat the question, please?
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Jahar is my brother, my beloved brother.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Yes, correct.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Yes.
MR. MELLIN: Objection.
THE COURT: Go ahead. You may answer that.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Because I'm seeing my brother for the first time in so many years and it's not easy.
MR. MELLIN: Objection.
THE COURT: Sustained to that.
THE COURT: Put another question.
MR. FICK: I'm going to show you a photograph that is already admitted as 3507-109. Do you recognize this photograph?
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Of course.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: In the town of Kaspiysk.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: 2004.
MR. MELLIN: Objection to the leading.
THE COURT: Overruled. Go ahead.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. 1994.
MR. FICK: Is there something that was happening in your life at that time that makes it -- that allows you to remember the date?
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: I was then pregnant.
MR. FICK: If you touch the screen with your finger, you can make lines and circles. Can you circle where you are in the picture?
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: (Indicating.)
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Dzhokhar.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: In 2002.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Before leaving for the United States, they visited me in Moscow.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: They came with my aunt, my uncle. And it was very painful because they were leaving, that they were living so far away, and nobody knew when we would see each other again. When they lived in Kyrgyzstan, in Chechnya, they would visit us often, and we saw each other often.
MR. FICK: So in the years before they left for America, what kinds of occasions would you see -- on what sorts of occasions would you see the Tsarnaev family?
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Prior to my departure for Moscow, I worked at the hairdresser salon across from where they lived in Lenin Square. So they lived across from my workplace, and I would go and have dinner with them every day. Then I left in 2000, and I haven't seen them since.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: No, I didn't. The last time I saw them was in 2000.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Yes, of course.
(Defendant's Exhibit No. 3507-112 received into evidence.)
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Yes.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: This is at Uncle Mukhammad Haji's, in his home in Makhachkala.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Yes.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: This is Uncle Mukhammad Haji.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: This is cute Dzhokhar, the little one.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: This is I.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: This is Aunt Patimat, the wife of Uncle Mukhammad Haji.
MR. FICK: And, finally, the young girl sort of between the -- next to the boy in the yellow that I've circled?
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: This is Ailina.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Yes.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: He was very cute, very nice, very kind, caring. There was always a smile on his face. There was never an occasion when he didn't have a smile on his face.
(Defendant's Exhibit No. 3507-21 received into evidence.)
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Yes.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: This one in Makhachkala, in the home of Uncle Shakhrudin.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Honestly, I can't say.
(Defendant's Exhibit No. 3501-10 received into evidence.)
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Tamerlan and Dzhokhar.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Dzhokhar.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Tamerlan.
MR. FICK: What do you remember about your observations of the relationship between Jahar and Tamerlan as children?
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Dzhokhar loved his older brother very much.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: And as is the custom in our families, you would always listen to your older sibling. You always tried to listen to your older sibling, your older brother, and follow his example.
MR. FICK: Can I ask both of you to speak a little bit more loudly, please? Did -- tell me about your memories of your Aunt Zubeidat before she left for America.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: She was fun-loving. She was love-loving -- life-loving. She loved to dress well. She wanted to look good. She was a beautiful woman, a fashionable woman.
MR. FICK: After the Tsarnaev family left for America, did Zubeidat at some point begin to return to Russia to visit family?
MR. MELLIN: Your Honor, objection, unless it's based on personal knowledge.
THE COURT: Well, yes. I took that to be the question, personal observation.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: At first when my aunt came, she was the same as she had always been. I didn't often go to Makhachkala to see her when she was visiting, but maybe the time -- the last -- the one -- but last time when she came, she was already covered.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: She was wearing a hijab. She was wearing a black scarf. It was strange for us to see our aunt like that. When she lived here, she dressed very well. She wore gold and diamonds.
MR. MELLIN: Objection, your Honor. This is total hearsay for this witness.
THE COURT: No, overruled. Go ahead.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: And this dramatic change, it was very strange to see her covered all over.
MR. MELLIN: Objection.
THE COURT: Overruled.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: From ancient times, as far as I know, they would cover their bodies up to the ankles and cover their face. But to wear all black, I don't think that was the custom.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: The black one, you mean? No.
MR. MELLIN: Your Honor, objection.
THE COURT: Rephrase it.
MR. MELLIN: Objection.
THE COURT: I'll allow it.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: My personal opinion --
MR. MELLIN: Objection to the "personal opinion."
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: I'm a little --
THE COURT: No. Go ahead. You can answer the question.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: My personal opinion, I'm a little scared of people who are completely covered.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Because many become extremist Islamists and start wearing all black.
MR. FICK: A couple of days ago I played for you an audio recording found on Tamerlan's computer. Do you remember listening to that with me?
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Yes, I did.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Tamerlan's.
MR. FICK: I'm going to play a little bit of the recording for you now and put the transcript on the screen and ask you, after you listen to it, to point out who is speaking.
MR. MELLIN: Objection, your Honor.
THE COURT: Let me see you at the side.
(SIDEBAR CONFERENCE AS FOLLOWS:
MR. MELLIN: Your Honor, we object. It's irrelevant and I'm not sure exactly --
THE COURT: What is it?
MR. MELLIN: I'm not sure right now what it is.
MR. FICK: If you notice, this is one of the recordings from Tamerlan's computer, one of the ones I played when Mr. Spencer was on the stand. She's going to identify one of the voices on that tape as being Tamerlan's voice. In it he expresses his then apparently state of mind about kinds of actions he wants to take. And I think identifying him as the speaker makes that evidence particularly relevant, and she's a person who's in a position to make that identification.
THE COURT: What is it?
MR. MELLIN: Well, your Honor, we object to anything other than her identifying the voice. She can just be asked -- in fact, she can be led through it. Did I play for you Exhibit whatever it was? Do you recognize the voice? Yes, it's Tamerlan's voice. What he's trying to do is get that entire recording into evidence and have it played over again. That's inappropriate through this witness. She just admitted that she just viewed what it is.
MR. WEINREB: Let me explain what it is.
THE COURT: That's what I'd like to know.
MR. WEINREB: When -- there were some recordings found on Tamerlan's computer which the defense claims are discussions between him and others when he visited Russia. And the discussions are about religious topics.
THE COURT: Those were admitted the other day.
MR. WEINREB: The government had a motion to exclude them in limine on the grounds that, without some kind of explanation about them, they could easily be -- that the jury will be led to speculate that this was some kind of terrorist cell that was getting together. In fact, there was a discussion of Tamerlan with religious scholars who are, in fact, telling him jihad is not the way, anti-jihad.
THE COURT: If there's an exhibit that has been admitted in evidence, she can say that she recognizes Tamerlan as one of the speakers.
MR. FICK: Your Honor, I plan to play two very, very brief, literally 20-second excerpts, to identify the particular speaker at particular lines of the exhibits. That's all I want to do.
MR. MELLIN: Your Honor, we would object to anything more than that. If he starts to ask what does that mean, what did you think about that, that's an entirely objectionable area. That's inappropriate.
THE COURT: I agree. Commentary on the content of the exhibit, I think, would be inappropriate through this witness.
MR. FICK: I'm not speaking any kind of expert commentary explanation, but I think it is fair game to ask, again, very simply, What was your reaction to hearing that?
THE COURT: No, not for that particular --
MS. CLARKE: Judge, could we just have a basis for the Court's ruling on that?
THE COURT: It's just a subjective -- it's not probative. I mean, what she thinks of something is not particularly probative.
MS. CLARKE: But she would have known Tamerlan before.
THE COURT: Yes. Well, there may be ways of getting it more specifically than just asking the question, What do you think about it? Maybe it could be contrasted to something specific.
MR. WEINREB: Your Honor, we still have the 403 objection to it because the jury is not -- it's like putting a picture of somebody standing in a crime scene and saying, Does it alarm you to see this person standing at the crime scene when maybe they were there shopping. Maybe they were walking through. Maybe they were -- she has no personal knowledge, so there's no way to cross-examine her about it. The fact is having this conversation could be sinister or it could be the opposite of sinister. She has no way of knowing and yet --
THE COURT: She can say whether the statements he was making were consistent or inconsistent with what she remembered him having said, something like that, I think would be admissible.
MR. MELLIN: Based on her interactions with him.
THE COURT: She would have to have a basis for making the comparison, but she could make a comparison.
MS. CLARKE: Thank you.
MR. WEINREB: There's no way to go through this line and we're not going to get into the substance of what's being said. And the substance of what's being said should not be admitted through this witness who can only speculate about the meaning of it and confuse the jury and mislead them about what is going on here.
THE COURT: Well, anyway. Go ahead. You may do it.
. . . END OF SIDEBAR CONFERENCE.)
MR. FICK: I'm going to play a very short portion of the tape and then ask you some questions when I'm done.
(Audio recording played.)
MR. FICK: Miss Suleimanova, do you see on the screen on the left-hand side the Russian text there?
MR. FICK: And the portions of the text highlighted in yellow, who was the person saying those words?
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: This is Tamerlan speaking.
(Audio recording played.)
MR. FICK: Again, Miss Suleimanova, the text on the screen that was highlighted in yellow, who was the speaker of those lines?
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Tamerlan.
MR. MELLIN: Objection to the preamble, your Honor.
THE COURT: Okay. Just the question, I think.
MR. FICK: We listened to the entire recording, this entire recording together last week, is that right?
MR. FICK: Are the religious ideas discussed in that recording consistent with the Islamist conditions that your family grew up with?
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: I don't understand this. Our parents didn't teach us these things. They taught us to pray and to read the prayers. And I'm very far away from all of this.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: In 2012.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: He was visiting Uncle Mukhammad Haji. I and my older and younger sister, Nabisat and Rabiyat, we came to visit Uncle Mukhammad Haji, and that's where we met.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: I was very happy to see my brother. It had been so many years. But I had two conflicting feelings.
MR. MELLIN: Your Honor, objection to the feelings.
THE COURT: Overruled.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Fear, but to see my brother and hug him. When we were told that he was adhering to some kind of radical Islam, I was afraid.
MR. MELLIN: Objection.
THE COURT: Overruled.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: I'm sorry that at this time I didn't have my heart completely open to my brother. I didn't demonstrate all my feelings and that I had been missing him so much all those years.
MR. MELLIN: Your Honor, objection to the narrative.
THE COURT: I think the question has been answered.
MR. FICK: Okay. So you described your feelings leading up to the meeting. Describe what happened at the meeting itself.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Both prior to the meeting and during the meeting, but when I learned that he died, I was so --
MR. MELLIN: Objection.
THE COURT: Sustained.
MR. FICK: If I could again ask the microphone to move a little closer to both of you so that we can all hear better. Thank you. You can actually move the microphone.
INTERPRETER: Close to the witness?
MR. MELLIN: Objection. Relevance, your Honor.
THE COURT: Sustained.
MR. MELLIN: Objection.
THE COURT: You may answer that.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: It wasn't about the contact, but my son -- my son just called me and said that Tamerlan --
MR. MELLIN: Objection.
THE COURT: Yeah, sustained.
MR. FICK: Did you do or say anything based on what your son told you, without telling us what your son said?
MR. MELLIN: Your Honor, objection to the answer. It was a yes-or-no question. I would object to the content of that.
THE COURT: No. Go ahead. You may translate it.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: I didn't take any action. All I did, I said to my son --
MR. MELLIN: Objection.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Are you --
THE COURT: Overruled.
NAIDA SULEIMANOVA: Are you praying? That's enough for me.
MR. FICK: Thank you, Miss Suleimanova. I have nothing further.
As a housekeeping matter, I would sub-mark the two -- the tape I played and the transcript I showed as 3306-J, the recording, and 3306-K, the transcript, for housekeeping.
THE COURT: All right.
(Defendant's Exhibit No. 3306-J received into evidence.)
(Defendant's Exhibit No. 3306-K received into evidence.)
MR. MELLIN: No questions. Thank you, your Honor.
THE COURT: All right. Miss Suleimanova, you may step down. Thank you.
THE COURT: It will be a good time. We'll take it.
COURT CLERK: All rise for the Court and jury. The court will take the morning recess.
(Recess taken at 11:05 a.m.)
COURT CLERK: All rise for the Court and the jury.
(The Court and jury enter the courtroom at 11:33 a.m.)
COURT CLERK: Be seated.