After a two-and-a-half-year trial, an Indian judge yesterday convicted 13 men of murder for the 1999 burning to death of Australian missionary Graham Stewart Staines and his two sons. Another defendant was found not guilty.
Judge Mahendranath Patnaik said he would sentence the 13 next Monday. They could receive the death penalty.
Staines and his sons Philip, 10, and Timothy, 8, died in January 1999 when a mob burned their vehicle while they slept outside a church in Manoharpur, a tribal village in eastern India's Orissa state. Manoharpur is 165km north of Bhubaneshwar, the state capital.
The judge said to the 13 remaining defendants, all of whom had pleaded innocent, "The charges against all of you have been proved and therefore all of you are held guilty of killing Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons."
"We will appeal to the upper court after the 22nd," said defense attorney Bana Mohanty. "It is not a right judgment, it is biased and not fair."
Prosecutor Sudhakar Rao commented, "We are 100 percent satisfied. It is the triumph of truth."
The court was cordoned off and extra guards were brought to protect the courthouse and the vehicle transporting the accused, said S. Padhi, a police officer in charge of security at the court.
There were no incidents outside, but the courtroom was so packed with observers that the judge had to order some people to leave so he could see the defendants as he rendered the verdict.
Staines' widow, Gladys, said during a Sept. 8 interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corp that she had forgiven her husband's killers.
"The Bible teaches us that we are to forgive others. I realized that if we don't forgive, we let bitterness come into our own lives," she said.
She was not immediately available yesterday, but a friend of her husband, S. Ghosh, told New Delhi Television News, "What I see is that justice has prevailed and we really have faith in the Indian judicial system."
The killings were among a series of attacks against missionaries and Christian institutions in 1999. They were attributed to right-wing Hindus who said poor Hindus were being pressured to convert.
Dara Singh, the main defendant in the case, was treated as a hero by support groups and tribal villagers, who helped hide him for a year before his arrest.
Before the slayings, Staines and his wife had spent more than 30 years working with leprosy patients in Orissa's Baripada district, and Mrs. Staines has remained in the state, continuing that work.
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