The court in Orissa state's capital Bhubaneswar said the 13 would be sentenced September 22 for the killing that shook India's minority Christian community and triggered global outrage. The 13 could face the death penalty.

The convicted included Ravindra Pal, known by the alias Dara Singh, a right-wing Hindu who allegedly led the mob that lynched Staines and his children on January 23, 1999.

A 14th suspect, Aniruddha Dandapat, was acquitted for lack of evidence, Judge Mahendra Nath Pattnaik told the tightly guarded courtroom.

Staines, a 57-year-old Baptist who had worked in India since 1965, was sleeping with his sons in his station wagon as he travelled between villages when he was surrounded by a mob that reportedly shouted anti-Christian slogans.

Staines and his sons Philip, eight, and Timothy, 10, were burnt alive after their escape route from the car was blocked by activists brandishing axes, according to prosecutors.

The missionary's widow Gladys Staines continues to live in India and has publicly forgiven her husband's killers, saying Christianity teaches against bitterness.

She has kept up her late husband's work with lepers and is raising money to build a hospital in Orissa.

Dara Singh was arrested one year after the killing, leading to accusations that authorities had been lax in prosecuting the case.

Singh was allegedly an activist of Bajrang Dal, a right-wing Hindu movement with ideological ties to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who has personally condemned the missionary's killing.

Right-wing Hindu groups accuse the approximately 1,000 registered Christian missionaries in India of trying to alter the country's demographic balance.