(CNN) -- A federal grand jury Thursday charged two friends of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev with obstructing justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice, the U.S. attorney's office in Boston said.
Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev -- 19-year-old roommates and Kazakh nationals who began attending the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth the same semester as Tsarnaev -- were charged in May with conspiracy.
It is not clear whether Thursday's indictment represents a second conspiracy charge.
Thursday's indictment accuses Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev of helping Tsarnaev after the April 15 bombing by taking items from his dorm room to keep them from investigators.
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If convicted, Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev could be sentenced to a maximum 20 years in prison on the obstruction count and up to five years on the conspiracy count, the U.S. attorney's office said. They also could be fined $250,000.

Bombings at the Boston Marathon on Monday, April 15, followed by a manhunt kept the Boston area reeling until the surviving suspect was captured on Friday, April 19. Pictured, the second explosion goes off near the marathon finish line on Monday while smoke from the first bomb still hangs in the air. Here's a look at how the week unfolded:
A man comforts a victim on the sidewalk at the scene of the first explosion April 15 near the finish line of the 117th Boston Marathon. The two explosions killed three people and wounded more than 170 others.
Runners react near Kenmore Square after two successive explosions at the marathon.
Rescue workers tend to the wounded on the scene. First responders tried to save lives and limbs before transporting victims to hospitals.
People gather Tuesday, April 16, at Garvey Park in Boston for a vigil for 8-year-old Martin Richard, killed by one of the bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant manager from Medford, Massachusetts, and Lingzi Lu, a 23-year-old Chinese national attending graduate school at Boston University, also were killed in the bombings.
A young runner, left, collects his thoughts on Tuesday, April 16, in a church blocks away from the scene of the bombing attack at the Boston Marathon. The city was quiet the day after the tragedy.
On Wednesday, April 17, a federal law enforcement source with firsthand knowledge of the investigation told CNN that a lid to a pressure cooker thought to have been used in the bombings had been found on a roof of a building near the scene. It was one of several pieces of evidence authorities found.
The device also had fragments including nails, BBs and ball bearings, the FBI said.
On Thursday, April 18, the FBI released photos and video of two suspects in the bombings and asked for public help identifying them.
The FBI later identified the suspects as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, left, and his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
FBI Suspect No. 2, later said to be Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, is apparently seen in this picture, far left in white cap, from Boston Marathon runner David Green at the scene of the bombings on Monday, April 15.
The man identified as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev appears in a tighter crop of David Green's photo. Green submitted the photo to the FBI, he told CNN's Piers Morgan in an interview.
Late on the night of Thursday, April 18, police responded to a call that a campus officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was shot and killed. Police say a man later reported being carjacked by the brothers. The two are stopped in Watertown, where police said they threw explosives and shot at the officers. One man, assumed to be Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, drives off and the other, later identified as Tamerlan Tsarnaev, is injured and later dies at the hospital. Shown is the scene early Friday in Watertown, Massachusetts, after the gunbattle between police and the suspects.
Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis speaks to the media in Watertown on April 19 and explains that the city is on lockdown until the surviving suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, is found. The manhunt begins.
Officers scoured Watertown, where Dhokhar Tsarnaev was last seen. A Massachusetts State Trooper checks a building along Mount Auburn Street in Watertown.
Frightened residents were questioned near the home of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, on Norfolk Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
SWAT teams conducted door-to-door searches in Watertown while looking for the suspect.
Ruslan Tsarni, uncle of the Boston bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, urges the brothers to turn themselves in. In an interview Friday, April 19, outside his home in Montgomery Village, Maryland, he calls the bombers "losers."
SWAT teams continue to search for the man identified by the FBI as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on Friday, April 19, in Watertown, Massachusetts. The lockdown for the Boston area is lifted at 6 p.m., meaning people can again leave their homes, even though a suspect remains at large.
On the evening of April 19, a Watertown resident reports seeing a man on a boat in his backyard and calls the police. Residents ran from the area where police say Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was hiding on Franklin Street in Watertown, Massachusetts, on April 19.
Helicopters with infrared devices detect a man under the boat tarp. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's frame is seen in this thermal image released by Massachusetts State Police.
Police throw "flash-bangs" devices -- meant to stun people with a loud noise -- at the boat and start negotiations with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He eventually surrenders and is transported to a local hospital in "serious condition."
People wave U.S. flags as police drive down the street in Watertown on Friday around 9 p.m. after it was announced that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had been captured. Boston bombings: A week in photos
The week in Boston in photos
The week in Boston in photos
The week in Boston in photos
The week in Boston in photos
The week in Boston in photos
The week in Boston in photos
The week in Boston in photos
The week in Boston in photos
The week in Boston in photos
The week in Boston in photos
The week in Boston in photos
The week in Boston in photos
The week in Boston in photos
The week in Boston in photos
The week in Boston in photos
The week in Boston in photos
The week in Boston in photos
The week in Boston in photos
The week in Boston in photos
The week in Boston in photos
The week in Boston in photos
The week in Boston in photos
HIDE CAPTION
Boston bombings: A week in photos
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Officer releases pics of 'real' Tsarnaev Arkady Bukh, Tazhayakov's attorney, said his client is not discouraged. He also said that Tazhayakov did not touch any of Tsarnaev's items.
"He feels very strongly he'll be able to be able to convince a jury that's he's innocent," Bukh said. "There's no evidence of intent, no incentive to help (Dzhokhar), no motive to destroy anything."
The three students socialized and texted each other, the indictment says.
On April 18, three days before the FBI searched Tsarnaev's dorm room, Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev allegedly went into the dorm, took Tsarnaev's laptop and a backpack containing Vaseline, a thumb drive, fireworks and a "homework assignment sheet" and took them back to their New Bedford apartment, the indictment states.
"The fireworks container has been opened and manipulated," the indictment says. "As a result, some of the explosive powder was visible."
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Kadyrbayev told his roommate that he believed Tsarnaev "used the Vaseline 'to make bombs,' or words to that effect," the indictment states.
That day, Kadyrbayev showed Tazhayakov a text message from Tsarnaev that read, "If yu want yu can go to my room and take what's there (smiley face emoticon) but ight bro Salam aleikum."
Either that night or early the next day, Kadyrbayev tossed the backpack in a Dumpster, according to the charges.
"Over the course of two days," the indictment continues, "more than 30 federal agents searched (a New Bedford) landfill for the evidence Kadyrbayev had placed in the trash."
The indictment further says the roommates watched April 18 news reports about the bombing that featured photos of Tsarnaev.
A federal grand jury earlier this year returned a 30-count indictment against Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect in the bombings, that alleges he used a weapon of mass destruction.
Tsarnaev is charged with killing four people -- three spectators who died in the bombings and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer ambushed in his cruiser a few days later -- and "maiming, burning and wounding scores of others," U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz said.
Read more: Woman arrested in alleged scam of Boston victim's fund
This article is taken from CNN.com
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