An Indian court has convicted 12 people for "arson, rioting and the torching of houses" in Orissa in 2008. The attack, which killed 90 people and displaced over 50,000 others, was "India's deadliest anti-Christian violence in decades" and ranked No. 3 on CT's Top 10 Religion News Stories of 2008.
The dozen people sentenced in the ruling received six-year prison terms and 5,000-rupee fines. Their convictions are the first in the longstanding case; many others–including 10 in this particular ruling–have been acquitted due to lack of evidence.
Christian activists say the ruling is a step forward, but some say the Orissa trials fail to "inspire much confidence."
CT has regularly reported on Orissa's Christians, including the original attack in 2008. In October, two months after the attack, CT reported how Christians knew the attacks were coming, but no one knew they would be so deadly. CT also editorialized that it was time for India to start acting like the world's largest democracy.
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