CHRISTIAN SOLIDARITY WORLDWIDE

For immediate release

September 23 2003

RINGLEADER OF MISSIONARY KILLERS SENTENCED TO DEATH BY INDIAN COURT

A group of Hindu militants who had been accused of murdering the Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons have been found guilty by an Indian court.

The ringleader of the group, Dara Singh, was sentenced to death, and 12 of his co-accused were sentenced to life imprisonment. They were found guilty of rioting, arson and culpable homicide amounting to murder. One other defendant was acquitted.

In January 1999 Graham Staines and his two sons Philip, ten, and Timothy, eight, were burned to death in their jeep by a mob of militants. The murders took place in a remote village in Orissa state, mideast India.

Dara Singh was not arrested until over a year after the murder, having fled into hiding. There were also delays in bringing the trial to court, and the trial itself has lasted over two years.

Although the verdict has been reached and sentence passed, all 13 defendants have the right of appeal. This could be a long process, as they can appeal all the way to the Supreme Court, and even if that fails, they can still hope for a presidential pardon.

Graham Staines had been working to help leprosy sufferers in India for over a quarter of a century. His widow, Gladys, still lives in India. She commented on the verdicts: “I have no bitterness because forgiveness brings healing and our land needs healing from hatred and violence. But forgiveness and the consequences of the crime should not be mixed up… No individual is above the law of the land.”

Whilst welcoming the guilty verdicts, John Dayal, Secretary General of CSW’s partner organisation the All India Christian Council, cautioned that neither the Government nor the court had sufficiently established the link between the murderers and the Hindu militant umbrella group the Sangh Parivar, despite evidence pointing towards this. Mr Dayal noted: “The Parivar and its doctrine of hate against religious minorities is the ultimate criminal, and it remains unindicted, and unpunished.”

CSW has been campaigning against recent legislation in two Indian states, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, which has made it harder for people to convert from Hinduism to Christianity. There has been a growing number of attacks on Indian Christians and church property by Hindu extremists in the last few years. There have also been many attacks by Hindus on Muslims in India, notably in Gujarat last year, where some 2,000 Muslims were killed.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide’s Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said: “There is no doubt the severity of this sentence sends out a strong message to extremists who would persecute Christian workers in India.

“India was founded as a secular state and the constitution guarantees the freedom to practice and propagate whichever faith you chose. We will continue to work for the repeal of sectarian legislation such as the anti-conversion laws in Gujarat and Tamil Nadu which contributes to interfaith violence and plays into the hands of extremists.”

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