Two Boston area residents filed a lawsuit against the New York Post on Wednesday, accusing the newspaper of defamation for falsely portraying them as suspects in connection with the Marathon bombings, the Boston Globe reported.
Salaheddin Barhoum, 16, and Yassine Zaimi, 24, were pictured three days after the bombing on the front page of the New York Post under the headline “Bag Men.” The lawsuit filed in Suffolk Superior Court alleges that the Post’s photographs and articles were libelous and “would lead a reasonable reader to believe that plaintiffs had bombs in their bags, that they were involved in causing the Boston Marathon bombing.”
The FBI released the first images of suspects Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev on the same day the Post published Barhoum and Zaimi’s photographs,
The two students are seeking unspecified monetary compensation, asserting in the complaint that they were subject to “scorn, hatred, ridicule, or contempt in the minds of a considerable and respectable segment of the community.”
