Baripada (Orissa), Sept 22: Gladys Staines, the widow of slain Australian missionary Graham Staines, today said she had forgiven the killers of her husband and two children but "forgiveness and the consequences of the crime should not be mixed up." "I have no bitterness because forgiveness brings healing and our land needs healing from hatred and violence," she said in a brief statement issued here after the pronouncement of death sentence against Dara Singh and lifer imprisonment to 12 others by a Bhubaneswar court this afternoon for the killing of her husband and two sons in Manoharpur village in Mayurbhanj district on January 22, 1999. "God in Christ has forgiven me and expects his followers to do the same. The bible says to whomsoever you forgive, their sins will be forgiven," she said.

"Therefore, in the light of eternity we all need forgiveness of our sins to enter heaven," she said.

"No individual is above the law of the land. I have no comments regarding the law taking its own course in crime and punishment," Gladys said. Bureau Report