A Hindu extremist who was serving a life sentence for the murders of Queensland missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons in India 25 years ago, has been freed from jail.
Mahendra Hembram walked out of jail in April to be welcomed by a large crowd of supporters.
Christian leaders said it was “shocking” and “obscene’ to see the convicted killer greeted like a hero.
They have no doubt the release was politically motivated due the resurgence of Hindu nationalism in India.
Hembram immediately proclaimed his innocence, despite previously declaring himself the sole culprit for the murders.
“I spent 25 years in jail after being falsely implicated in an incident related to religious conversion. Today, I have been released,” he said.
THE CRIME THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD
Graham Staines was 58 and his sons Philip and Timothy, 10 and 6, when a Hindu mob set fire to their Jeep station wagon in which they were sleeping outside a village church in what was Orissa state in January 1999.
The mob prevented them from escaping from the burning vehicle
The horrific hate crime attracted global condemnation, including throughout India.
WIDOW IMMEDIATELY FORGIVES KILLERS OF HER HUSBAND AND SONS
Graham Staines’ widow Gladys and daughter Esther immediately publicly proclaimed their forgiveness for the perpetrators, and prayed that they would come to know Jesus.
Gladys said she wasn’t angry, just sad.
She recalled; “Within 24 hours, I was asked: What is your message to the people of India?”
She replied: “I wanted people to know that Jesus forgives, that God loves them, and He wants them to know Him.”
“This message did not stay in India, but made its way to Australia and all around the world.”
THE STAINES’ MISSION IN INDIA
Graham first went to India in 1965 working as an evangelical missionary in remote tribal areas of Orissa state, now known as Odisha state.
He set up a home for people with leprosy and living in extreme poverty and was joined by Gladys in 1981 and two years later they married.
They shared the Gospel, but never forced any of those they cared for into converting to Christianity, as falsely claimed by extreme Hindu groups.
Gladys and Esther stayed on in India for five years after the murders, continuing the family’s work.
GLADYS STAINES RECOGNISED FOR THE FAMILY’S HUMANITARIAN WORK
They saw the opening of the Graham Staines Memorial Hospital and the Philip and Timothy Memorial Hospital for boys.
In 2005, Glady Staines was awarded the fourth highest civilian honour in India in recognition of her humanitarian work.
In 2016, she received the Mother Teresa Memorial International Award for Social Justice.
Christianity Today once described Gladys as “the best-known Christian in India after Mother Teresa.”
She and Esther resettled in North Queensland where Gladys worked as a nurse and Bible teacher and Esther became a doctor and raised her own family.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ACCUSED MURDERERS
More than 50 people were arrested over Graham’s and the boys’ murders.
Nearly all were released or acquitted.
Only the alleged ringleader Dara Singh remains behind bars and pressure is mounting on the Odisha government to release him within weeks.
He was originally given the death sentence but it was commuted to life imprisonment.
MOVIE RELEASED BASED ON GRAHAM STAINES’ STORY
A movie was released in 2019 called The Least of These: The Graham Staines Story.
American actor Stephen Baldwin played Graham in a partly fictionalised plot about a journalist investigating the accusations of forced conversions.
At the time Gladys Staines noted: “As a result of his death, many hundreds – and maybe thousands – of people have come to a knowledge of who Jesus Christ is as their own personal saviour.”
“Even within India, I know there were many people who were challenged by Graham having come from Australia to India to tell them about Jesus.”
“People have been pointed to Christ. It was his desire that people come to know Christ and it was his greatest prayer.”
