The Catholic and Protestant churches express consternation about a sentence handed down by the High Court which diminishes the legal responsibility of a Hindu group guilty of the murder of an Australian missionary and his two children.

Bhubaneswar (AsiaNews/Ucan) – The Church of Orissa, eastern India, has expressed "consternation" at the sentence handed down on 19 May by the Orissa High Court which commutes to life imprisonment the death penalty against Rabindra Pal Singh. The Hindu fanatic was found guilty of burning alive an Australian missionary, Graham Stuart Staines, and his two sons six years ago.

"The truth has been denied and suppressed," said Bishop of Balasore, Thomas Thiruthalil. According to Reuben Senapati, a bishop of the Church of Northern India (CNI) resident in Cuttack, the high court decision "cannot be justified in any way".

Singh was condemned to death on 22 September 2003. The provincial court had declared him guilty of leading the attack on the district of Keonjhar on 23 January 1999, which led to the death of Graham and his two sons, aged seven and nine years. The court had also imprisoned 12 men described as his accomplices. Apart from commuting the sentence of Singh, the high court released 11 of these accomplices.

The high court decision is explained in a document of 110 pages: according to the judges, "the sentence of the inferior court could not be upheld because the facts were not proved beyond reasonable doubt; further the identification of the guilty is uncertain". The document continues: "There is no proof that the event took place through the activity of Singh alone".

The Senapati bishop declared himself "disappointed" by the sentence and added that the decision confirmed that "justice is in the hands of Singh and his group" According to Sundhansu Nayak, representative of the YMCA (Young Men Christian Association) of Cuttack – the capital of Orissa – the verdict "will encourage Hindu extremists to kill again in Orissa as well as the rest of India." Nayak said Christians "now feel less secure, given the injustice of the sentence". The state of Orissa is currently led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a Hinduism-inspired party defined as "the political wing" of extremist and fundamentalist groups. In the last ten years, Christian-owned churches and homes have been burned down in Orissa, and tribal Christians have been subject to all manner of obstacles. Pastors and faithful have been killed: in 2005, two pastors have been killed already.

"Great sadness" also reigns in the leprosy centre where Staines worked until his death: Director, Subhankar Gosh, said he had "expected" confirmation of the death sentence. He said he had spoken over the phone to Gladys Staines, the pastor's widow who now lives in Australia. Her comment about the high court sentence was the same as that she passed when the death sentence had been handed down: "I hold no bitterness, because forgiveness brings healing". Shortly after the crime, the woman publicly forgave the perpetrators. The government awarded her the Padma Shri award – the fourth highest honour in the country – for her social commitment.

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