Va. lawmaker: Tsarnaev’s body legally buried

WASHINGTON – Despite outrage over the grave site of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the congressman representing the district where the bombing suspect is buried says the cemetery owners can inter whomever they choose.

Speaking with WTOP Monday morning, Republican Rep. Rob Wittman says Tsarnaev’s burial was legal, private and entirely up to the cemetery.

“You have to remember the rights of the cemetery owners and the rights of the deceased in where they’re interred,” Wittman says.

At least one Virginia group is calling for Tsarnaev’s body to be disinterred and sent elsewhere. The Virginia Anti-Shariah Task Force says it is “an awful sneak attack on the people of Virginia” to bury his body in the state.

Tsarnaev’s grave site is in Doswell in Caroline County, near Kings Dominion amusement park.

The site will be monitored to assure it doesn’t draw attention from people intending to create a shrine to extremism, or those who want to “manipulate [it] in ways that aren’t productive or healthy for the community, the state or the nation,” Wittman says.

WTOP’s Kristi King and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Follow @KingWTOP and @WTOP on Twitter.

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