missionary and his two young sons, BosNewsLife learned.
Australian Christian missionary Graham 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.
The murder outraged sparked international condemnation and outrage in India where missionaries have worked for centuries, especially in remote and tribal areas.
SATISFIED
"We are 100 percent satisfied. It is the triumph of truth," the Associated Press (AP) quoted prosecutor Sudhakar Rao as saying s after the verdict was handed down in a tightly guarded and packed courthouse.
The killings were among a series of attacks against missionaries and Christian institutions blamed on right-wing Hindus who complained that poor Hindus were being pressured to convert.
Judge Mahendranath Patnaik, who conducted the 2 1/2-year trial, said he would hand down sentences on September 22, AP reported. A 14th defendant was acquitted for a lack of evidence.
MOB
Dara Singh was accused of leading the mob that set fire to Staines’ vehicle. For nearly a year after the murder, he was on the run, apparently protected by supporters who sympathized with his campaign against Christians who make up about two percent of the population, said Voice of America (VOA).
Several Christian groups and human rights organizations said Dara Singh was associated with right-wing Hindu groups, but a judicial inquiry into the attack found no links between him and organized Hindu groups, VOA reported.
Those found guilty could receive the death penalty, but their lawyers say they will appeal to a higher court. And in Australia, the missionary’s brother, John Staines, said he hoped the killers would be spared the death penalty.
FORGIVENESS
"We have forgiven them in Christ’s name. I think that these men have to face up to what they’ve done. By the same token, I don’t want to see them put to death over it," AP quoted him as saying after the verdict.
Staines’ widow, Gladys, said in a September. 8 interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that she had also 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.
Before the slayings, the couple had spent more than 30 years working with leprosy patients in Orissa’s Baripada district, and Mrs. Staines has remained, continuing that work.
