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Hundreds of people protested in a northern Afghan city following reports that a man who faced a possible death penalty for converting to Christianity would be released, officials said.
Protests in northern Afghanistan.
Many Afghans are not happy with the decision to dismiss the case.
About 700 Muslim clerics and others chanted “Death to Bush” and other anti-Western slogans in Mazar-e-Sharif, officials told The Associated Press.
Clerics have called for protests across Afghanistan against both the government and the West, which had pressured President Hamid Karzai’s administration to drop the case against Abdul Rahman. He was released today due to “mental illness”.
KABUL (BBC News) March 28 — An Afghan man who could have faced the death penalty for converting to Christianity has been freed from jail. Abdul Rahman, a Christian for 16 years, was charged with rejecting Islam but his case was dismissed because of insufficient evidence, officials said.
The BBC’s Sanjoy Majumder in Kabul says Mr Rahman was released from Kabul’s main high security Pul-e-Charki prison after officials decided he was mentally unfit to stand trial.
Mr Rahman is currently with officials from the justice ministry, Afghanistan’s deputy attorney general Eshaq Aloko said.
United Nations officials are meeting in Kabul to discuss Mr Rahman’s plea for asylum in another country. UN spokesman Adrian Edwards said the organisation was working with the Afghan government to solve the asylum issue.
The Afghan constitution enshrines personal freedom and recognises the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But it also says the country’s laws are based on Islamic Sharia law and there is an explicit article which says no one has the right to contravene Islam. The constitution is deliberately ambiguous because it attempted to address Western concerns over democracy as well as placate domestic hardliners who favour an Islamic state.
Under Afghanistan’s Sharia legal system Abdul Rahman could have faced execution if he had refused to renounce Christianity. Mr Rahman has lived outside Afghanistan for 16 years and is believed to have converted to Christianity during a stay in Germany.
KABUL (ABC/AP) Mar 28, 2006 — An Afghan man who had faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity quickly vanished today after he was released from prison, apparently out of fear for his life with Muslim clerics still demanding his death.
Italy’s Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini said he would ask his government to grant Abdul Rahman asylum. Fini was among the first to speak out on the man’s behalf.
● Tribal factions clash in Pakistan, 26 killed
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
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Washington D.C. (State Dep’t) March 23 — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has contacted Afghan President Hamid Karzai by telephone and spoken in person with Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah to discuss legal proceedings against an Afghan citizen who converted to Christianity 16 years ago.
“She raised it in the strongest possible terms and she urged President Karzai’s government to seek a favorable resolution to this case at the earliest possible moment. She underlined the fact that the United States stands forthrightly for principles of freedom of worship, freedom of expression and that these are bedrock principles of democracy around the world,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
Rice: Afghanistan Must Find Its Own Way
● FM Abdullah Abdullah Sacked
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
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Now that is interesting. This is a guy who could indeed have information that could be embarrassing to US and its allies.
If Karzai has been instructed to toss Abdullah, then Abdullah should probably strongly consider launching immediate and radical appearance and location changes.
And Karzai himself should probably keep a sharp eye on his Dyncorp bathroom guards….
He’s probably hiding from all the folks trying to interest him in a book project. (God does my cynicism show)
But, really, if he can make it out of this shit alive and he plays his cards right, he’ll be in church every Sunday in Fall Church soon, with a new house and a book contract and in negotiations with the Christian network, for the movie! Forget the 72 virgins dude, he’ll have the American dream.
Ouch! I’m getting too old methinks!
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Militants attacked a coalition forces base in southern Afghanistan, sparking a battle that killed two soldiers — an American and a Canadian — and at least 12 rebels, officials said.
The battle in Helmand province’s Sangin district also wounded three Canadian soldiers, Canadian Brig. Gen. David Fraser told reporters at a base in southern Kandahar city. Helmand is a hotbed of insurgency and center of the booming trade in illegal drugs and has been the scene of some of the deadliest fighting in recent months.
KANDAHAR (CBC) March 29 — Pte. Robert Costall was killed in a battle which took place in Helmand province about 110 kilometres northwest of Kandahar. Fraser said Costall died “defending his fellow soldiers and we will not forget his sacrifice.” Costall was with the 1st Battlion of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, based in Edmonton.
Private Robert Costall is seen in this undated handout photo in Afghanistan. Costall was killed after Taliban forces attacked coalition troops in the Helmund province, north of Kandadar on Wednesday March 29, 2006. Forces had been sent to the area after the recent death of eight Afghan Army soldiers. AP Photo/HO, DNDThe attack followed separate roadside bombings in the region that killed six Afghan soldiers and four private security workers, respectively. Officials blamed both bombings on Taliban rebels. Suspected Taliban rebels also attacked a police checkpoint in Kandahar city late Tuesday, killing two officers and wounding four, police said.
In today’s incident, coalition troops called in aircraft to attack the militants and together with the forces inside the base “are believed to have killed at least a dozen enemy insurgents,” the U.S. military statement said. But it added the military was still conducting a full assessment of the battle. Brig. Gen. Anthony J. Tata said the troops “defeated a significant enemy element.”
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● Minister Abdullah was nice enough to come here with a very senior-level delegation of many ministers from the Afghan Government, as well as the National Security Advisor and, of course, the Ambassador of Afghanistan to the United States … A few days later Mr. Abdullah Abdullah was dismissed by President Karzai.
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
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ROME, Italy (AP) March 29 — The man who faced the death penalty after converting from Islam to Christianity left Afghanistan, and Italy said it granted him asylum and expected him to arrive “soon.”
Abdul Rahman, 41, left Afghanistan early in the day, an official closely connected to the case said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
The official did not know where Rahman was flying, but Italy’s government said it expected him to arrive there perhaps within the day.
● Afghan MPs say asylum-seeking Christian must not escape
Afghanistan's parliament said that a Christian who avoided the death penalty for converting from Islam should not be allowed to escape the country, as the man looked to Europe for asylum. AFP/Shah MaraiSee my diary ::
Afghan Christian Convert Seeks Political Asylum and Disappears
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
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