Witnesses Get Death Threats in Orissa, India Trials
July 14, 2009 – 11:52 amState blames 2008 Kandhamal district violence on conversions, ‘reconversions’
CDN:
NEW DELHI, July 14 - Nearly 11 months after an unprecedented wave of anti-Christian attacks shook the eastern state of Orissa, a rein of terror continues in the area as the former rioters issue death threats to witnesses.
Of the more than 750 cases filed in various police stations in Kandhamal district and neighboring Gajapati district, only one has resulted in conviction. Some trials are underway amid reports of armed extremists threatening to kill witnesses.
The Rev. Dibya Paricha of the Cuttack-Bhubaneswar Catholic Archdiocese said several witnesses are shrinking away to save their lives.On Thursday (July 9), a witness in Salapsahi village, in the Kasinpadar area under the Phiringia police station, refused to testify in a murder case.
“During the trial, the complainant, the younger brother of the victim, said he did not know anything about the case,” Paricha, coordinator of the Christian Legal Association’s legal cell in Kandhamal, told Compass.
“The previous day, he had said that he would tell the truth so that the culprits would be punished … From reliable a source we came to know that he was threatened with death.”
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