Bhubaneswar, Sept 15: Thirteen accused, including Dara Singh, in the Graham Staines murder case were convicted by the trial court here today. One of the accused has been exonerated.
The sentence will be announced on September 22.
The judgement was to be pronounced by the District and Sessions Judge, Khurda, M N Patnaik on last Monday but it was deferred till today as the judge was indisposed.
The case, which dragged on for over four and half years, has become one of the longest crime-related trials in the state with over 80 witnesses testifying before the court.
Staines, an Australian missionary working in Orissa since 1965, and his two minor sons Philip (11) and Timothy (7), were burnt to death while asleep in their station wagon outside a church at Manoharpur village in Keonjhar district on the night of January 22, 1999.
The incident sent shockwaves all over the country and outside. Christians held protest rallies in Bhubaneswar and other places to condemn the killings.
But no matter what the verdict held in store for the accused persons, Gladys Staines, widow of the missionary who has decided to live on in India with only daughter Esther, reiterated that she had "forgiven them".
Bureau Report