BHUBANESWAR, India (AFP) - A court in eastern India is close to delivering a verdict in the case in which 17 people are accused of burning an Australian missionary and his two sons to death, a court official said.
The trial, which began in March 2001, closed Monday with judge Mahendranath Patnaik saying he would announce on Wednesday a date when he will deliver the verdict, the official said.
Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, Philip, 8, and Timothy, 10, were killed when a mob, allegedly shouting anti-Christian slogans, set fire to their jeep in the eastern state of Orissa on January 23, 1999.
Staines and his two children were travelling from their home town of Baripada to Keonjhar in Orissa and were sleeping in their car during an overnight stop in Manohapur village.
The three apparently tried to escape the fire but the mob, allegedly led by principal suspect Ravindra Pal alias Dara Singh Singh and armed with axes, prevented them.
Singh was arrested a year after the gruesome murder on January 31, 2000.
A special court has been hearing the case against Singh and 16 others, three of whom have not been caught by police.
During the court hearing Monday, defence counsel Brahmananda Panda said prosecution witnesses who were the first to reach the site of the murder had failed to identify the suspects in court.
All the defendants have pleaded innocent and face the death penalty if convicted.