I seem to recall that Muslim religious rules require that a body must be buried in 24 hours. This may also be Jewish law. Like a number of religious laws that make sense in a hot desert environment, it no longer is necessary with refrigeration. I hope they took dental impressions and X-rays too.
Yeah, I heard about Muslim law requiring burial within 24 hours, but if there’s an exception in cases in which an autopsy is required to determine cause of death (as I believe is the case), then we should be able to wait a couple of days to determine the identity of the dead person—after all, if he’s not really Osama, perhaps he isn’t a Muslim and thus should not get a Muslim funeral.
Funny how the Christian rule is the complete opposite—you *shouldn’t* bury too quickly after the person is declared dead in order to reduce the possibility of burying someone alive (hence the Irish wake).