Melbourne: Relatives of Australian Christian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, who were murdered in India, expressed dismay on September 22 when one of the killers received the death sentence for the slayings.

"I didn't want to see the man put to death," said John Staines, elder brother of Graham Staines, who was killed in January 1999 along with his sons, Philip, 10, and Timothy, eight, after the death penalty was handed down against Dara Singh.

Singh was convicted along with 12 other men last week of the deadly attack, in which Staines and his sons were burned to death in their jeep in a village in Orissa.

The 12 others convicted for the killings received sentences of life in prison.

John Staines had demanded mercy for Singh as well as the others involved in the attack.

"He has to answer to God for what he did," he said.

"You would never get over what happened if you can't forgive," he said.

"They committed a terrible crime, but the sort of thing that Jesus Christ espoused was that if we can't forgive our fellow men than how can he forgive us."

Agencies