Tamerlan Tsarnaev (AP)
Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev has been buried in a Muslim cemetery in a small central Virginia community, officials said today.
Tsarnaev, 26 — who was killed in a police shootout on April 19 — was interred at the Al-Barzakh Cemetery, the first Muslim cemetery at the small community of Doswell, about 15 miles outside of Richmond, local officials said.
“What Tsarnaev did is between him and God,” cemetery officials said today. “We strongly disagree with his violent actions, but that does not release us from our obligation to return his body to the earth.”
Virginia resident Martha Mullen on Tuesday reached out to the Islamic Society of Greater Richmond and asked them to facilitate the burial after seeing Tsarnaev’s body languish for a week in a Worcester, Mass., funeral home.
“Jesus tells us ‘love your enemies,’” she said. “Not to hate them even after they are dead.”
Several protests broke out in opposition of having the bomber’s body buried in Massachusetts.
The Islamic Society of Greater Richmond arranged for the burial plot at Al-Barzakh and had the body transported on Wednesday night.
Officials did not publicize the move and only disclosed details once Tsarnaev’s remains were already buried.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev died on April 19 in Watertown, Mass., four days after Boston authorities said he and his brother, Dzhokhar, allegedly killed three people and injured hundreds near the city’s marathon finish line.
Tamerlan was run over by his brother while the younger Tsarnaev, who faces the death penalty on federal charges, fled the scene.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts officials said they have “mounting evidence” that points to both Tamerlan and his brother Dzhokhar were involved in the 2011 triple homicide, according to ABC News.
Officials said that while there have been “forensic hits” it is too early to charge the younger brother in the grisly slays.