A court in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, sentenced 11 people to life in prison Friday for the murder of 69 Muslims during religious riots in 2002. Over the course of the riots, which lasted for days, nearly 1,000 people were killed. A total of 24 people were convicted of the murders, which took place at a housing complex called the Gulbarg Society. Of the 24 convicted, 11 received life sentences [WSJ report], 12 were sentenced to seven years, and one person was sentenced to 10 years. The prosecution asked for the death penalty, which the court rejected-finding that the massacre was not planned [Reuters report]. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the state’s chief minister at the time.

Accusations that Modi did not do enough to stop the rioting continue to haunt him to this day, although the prime minister has so far denied any wrongdoing. As recently as September 2014, Modi was sued [JURIST report] by the American Justice Center, on behalf of unnamed survivors of violence in India, who claimed [complaint, PDF] that he failed to stop the riots. A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed the lawsuit [JURIST report] last year, agreeing with the US State Department that Modi is entitled to immunity from lawsuits in US courts. Modi was elected [Guardian report] prime minister in May 2014 in a landslide victory. The election of the Hindu nationalist and 282 members of his conservative Bharatiya Janata Party [official website] was called historic, as no party has won by such a margin since 1984.