BHUBANESWAR, 23 September 2003 — An Indian court yesterday sentenced a Hindu hard-liner to death and 12 other men to life in prison for burning to death Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons in 1999. Dara Singh, an activist against conversions, was ordered to the gallows for leading the crowd that torched the station wagon in which Staines and his children were sleeping at a village in the eastern state of Orissa.
“It’s alright,” was the only response from Singh, wearing a traditional Indian long shirt with a smear of red vermilion on his forehead.
The death sentence needs to be approved by the Orissa High Court, Judge Mahendra Nath Pattnaik said.
Staines, a 57-year-old missionary, had worked in India since 1965 treating leprosy patients. His widow Gladys Staines has publicly forgiven the killers and continued her late husband’s charity work in Orissa.
She said she had no opinion on the death sentence handed down by the court in Orissa’s capital Bhubaneswar.
“I’ve already said previously I’ve forgiven the killers. Forgiveness brings healing,” Gladys Staines told television reporters.
“But forgiveness and the consequences of the crime should not be mixed up. Other than that, I have no further comment,” she said.
