BHUBANESWAR, India - A court in eastern India rejected a petition by 14 villagers accused of murdering an Australian missionary to change the judge hearing their trial, officials said Saturday.
The 14 men are accused of taking part in the killing of Graham Stewart Staines, 58, and his sons Philip, 10, and Timothy, 8. The three were sleeping in their jeep outside a church in a remote village in the eastern state of Orissa on Jan. 23, 1999 when villagers began beating on the vehicle and set it on fire, witnesses said.
The state's High Court rejected Friday a letter written last month by one of the defendants claiming that the judge was biased and asking that he be removed, officials said.
The trial, which was adjourned when several of the defendants were hospitalized following a hunger strike, was scheduled to resume on Tuesday, they said.
If convicted, the men could face death by hanging. The trial began last March.