Abdul Rahman

Abdul Rahman (born 1965) is an Afghan man whose arrest and trial in February 2006 sparked widespread controversy among the international community.

Rahman had been arrested by Afghan authorities for apostasy and subsequently threatened with the death penalty.

He had converted to Christianity from Islam while providing medical assistance to Afghan refugees in Peshawar, Pakistan.

Abdul Rahman was born in 1965.

In 1990, while he was working as a staff member for a Catholic non-governmental aid group which was providing medical assistance to Afghan refugees in Peshawar, Pakistan, he learned about Christianity and he was subsequently baptized into the Roman Catholic Church.

After his conversion, he adopted the biblical name Joel.

In 1993, he moved to Germany and later, he unsuccessfully sought asylum in Belgium before he was deported to Afghanistan in 2002, after the fall of the Taliban government.

Abdul Rahman's wife divorced him because of his conversion to Catholicism.

In the ensuing custody battle over the couple's two daughters, who had been raised by Abdul Rahman's parents during his absence, the mother's family raised the issue of his religion as grounds for their denial of his custody.

When he returned to Afghanistan, he was disowned by his parents, who stated: "Because he has converted from Islam to another religion we don't want him in our house" and "Abdul Rahman wanted to change the ethics of my children and family. He is not going in the right direction. I have thrown him out of my house", while his daughters said that "He behaves badly with us and we were threatened and disgraced by him. He has no job and has never given me a stitch of clothing or a crust of bread. Just his name as a father" and "He said he was my father but he hasn't behaved like a father since he came back to Afghanistan. He threatens us and we are all afraid of him and he doesn't believe in the religion of Islam."

On 26 March 2006, under heavy pressure from foreign governments, the Afghan court returned his case to prosecutors, citing "investigative gaps"; Rahman was released from prison and remanded to his family on the night of 27 March.

On 29 March, Abdul Rahman arrived in Italy after being offered asylum by the Italian government.

Representatives within the Afghan government and many Afghan citizens continued to call for Rahman's execution, and his wife divorced him shortly after his conversion, leading to an unsuccessful custody battle for their two children.

The case became a cause célèbre internationally, and particularly throughout the Western world.

Harsh condemnation came from the United States and the United Kingdom, both of which were the world's leading donors of international aid to Afghanistan at the time.

The Afghan government's integrity was called into question, as it had recently been established under the aegis of the War in Afghanistan, shortly after an American-led military coalition overthrew the country's Taliban government.

In February 2006, members of his family reported him to the police.

He was arrested after police discovered that he possessed a Bible.

After his arrest, he was unable to find a lawyer in Kabul willing to represent him.

Authorities barred attempts by the Associated Press news agency to see him.

Article 130 of the Constitution of Afghanistan enables prosecutors to charge him for apostasy "in accordance with the Hanafi jurisprudence".

The text of the article says:

"In cases under consideration, the courts shall apply provisions of this Constitution as well as other laws. If there is no provision in the Constitution or other laws about a case, the courts shall, in pursuance of Hanafi jurisprudence, and, within the limits set by this Constitution, rule in a way that attains justice in the best manner."

Prosecutors asked for the death penalty for Abdul Rahman, calling him a "microbe".

Prosecutor Abdul Wasi demanded his repentance and called him a traitor: "He should be cut off and removed from the rest of Muslim society and should be killed."

The Afghan attorney general was quoted as saying that Abdul Rahman should be hanged.

Abdul Rahman's judicial proceedings, which began on 16 March and became widely known in the international press on 19 March, were overseen by three judges in the public security tribunal of Kabul's primary court.

Ansarullah Mawlawizadah, the chief judge in the case, said that Abdul Rahman would be asked to reconsider his conversion: "We will invite him again because the religion of Islam is one of tolerance. We will ask him if he has changed his mind. If so we will forgive him."

Ansarullah Mawlafizada also said "the Prophet Muhammad has said several times that those who convert from Islam should be killed if they refuse to come back, Islam is a religion of peace, tolerance, kindness and integrity. That is why we have told him if he regrets what he did, then we will forgive him".

The judge added more conditions: "If [he] does not repent, you will all be witness to the sort of punishment he will face."

Even though he was facing a possible death sentence, Abdul Rahman held firm to his convictions: "They want to sentence me to death and I accept it ... I am a Christian, which means I believe in the Trinity ... I believe in Jesus Christ."

While Abdul Rahman was on trial, a number of Afghan Christians worked to bring the attention of the international media towards the suffering of the Afghan Christians and especially Abdul Rahman.

The Afghan Embassy in Washington, D.C. announced on March 22 that the country's judicial system was evaluating Abdul Rahman's mental fitness.

Moayuddin Baluch, a religious adviser to President Hamid Karzai confirmed that Abdul Rahman would undergo a psychological examination.

Judge Mawlawizadah stated that since Rahman refused to repent then his mental state was being examined.

If he was found to be mentally unfit, the case would be dismissed.

An Afghanistan state prosecutor named Sarinwal Zamari said of Abdul Rahman in an interview with the Associated Press on March 22, 2006, "We think he could be mad. He is not a normal person. He doesn't talk like a normal person. Doctors must examine him. If he is mentally unfit, definitely Islam has no claim to punish him. He must be forgiven. The case must be dropped."

Other sources said Rahman is "perennially jobless and mentally unbalanced".

Prosecutor Abdul Wasei said he doubted claims regarding Abdul Rahman's mental instability.

"I did not see any kind of mental problem in this case", he said.