Boston Bomber to Not Be Tried as Enemy Combatant

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing will not be tried as an enemy combatant in a military tribunal.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will be prosecuted in the federal court system.

Tsarnaev is a naturalized U.S. citizen. Carney says that under U.S. law U.S. citizens cannot be tried in military commissions. Carney says that since Sept. 11, 2001, the federal court system has been used to convict and incarcerate hundreds of terrorists.

Tsarnaev, 19, and his older brother and suspected co-conspirator, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, were born in southern Russia.