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Afghan Christian convert released, mentally unfit for trial+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)KABUL, March 28_(Kyodo) _ An Afghan man who was jailed and faced execution for converting from Islam to Christianity was released Monday after the court dropped the case, calling him "mentally unfit for trial," Deputy Attorney General Mohammed Eshaq Alako said Tuesday. Abdul Rahman, 41, was arrested last month for apostasy and converting to Christianity 16 years ago while working for an aid organization in Pakistan. He was released from a high-security prison in Kabul. "After looking over his medical report, which showed he was mentally ill and unfit to stand trial, we decided to release him," Alako said. Under Islamic Law, leaving Islam for another religion is punishable by death, although the Afghan Constitution guarantees freedom of religion. The presiding judge dismissed the case Sunday because of "insufficient evidence" and questioned Rahman's sanity. The case was referred back to prosecutors and Rahman underwent psychiatric tests Monday. The case caused an uproar in the West, which pressed the Afghan government to intervene. Diplomats from Canada, Germany, Italy and the United States -- countries with troops in Afghanistan -- appealed to Afghan President Hamid Karzai to uphold the ideals of religious freedom and intervene in the case. A U.N. spokesman in Kabul said Tuesday that Rahman had asked for asylum outside Afghanistan. "We expect that (asylum) will be provided by one of the countries interested in a peaceful solution to this case," he said. Rahman, who lived in Germany for 16 years and returned to Afghanistan in 2003, was arrested following a complaint made by his parents regarding a family quarrel. During the interrogation, the police found that Rahman was a Christian and had a Bible in his possession. On Monday, in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, hundreds of Islamic school students and clerics protested the announcement Rahman would be released, said Qari Abdullah Qudrat, a provincial spokesman. More protests were expected after his freedom proclamation. The fear of more violent protests comes weeks after 11 Afghans were killed in riots over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad published in European newspapers. Afghans have staged several religious riots, protesting a report by a U.S. magazine that U.S. military interrogators had desecrated the Quran in Guantanamo Bay last year. Though the report was retracted by the magazine, the U.S. military later confirmed several cases of "mishandling" of the Quran. |