ICC Note:
A court in Orissa has convicted 7 innocent Christian men for the 2008 murder of the Hindu leader Laxamananda Saraswati despite the lack of convincing evidence and a local communist group coming forward and taking responsibility for the murder. The murder of the Hindu extremist group leader sparked off the 2008 anti-Christian riots in Orissa that resulted in mobs of Hindu radicals marching from village to village attacking Christians and destroying their homes. All told, Christians in 600 villages were attacked, over 5,600 Christian homes were looted and set on fire, 300 churches were reduced to rubble and over 100 Christians were murdered. Please pray that justice will be done and the 7 innocent Christians will be released to their families soon.
10/2/2013 India (Asia News) – An Orissa court condemned yesterday seven innocent Christians for the murder of Hindu leader Laxamananda Saraswati, who in 2008 triggered violent anti-Christian pogroms in the state. On October 3 the judges shall will pronounce the sentence. These men have been in jail for five years without any evidence against them and despite the Maoists having always claimed responsibility for the murder.
For Sajan George, President of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), the court’s decision is “a travesty of justice”. “It is shameful -he stressed to AsiaNews – that innocent fathers of families have been locked in jail for almost five years and subjected to trials for a crime they did not commit.”
Accused of having shot Laxamananda Saraswati, leader of the Hindu extremist movement Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the seven were arrested and tried by the Fast Track Courts, special tribunals established after the pogroms to speed up processes. However, these courts have used every procedural loophole to defer the hearings, to deliver the case to a regular Session Court, which has established their guilt.
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