KABUL, Afghanistan -- An Afghan man is being prosecuted in a Kabul court and could be sentenced to death on a charge of converting from Islam to Christianity, a crime under this country's Islamic laws, a judge said Sunday.\nThe trial is believed to be the first of its kind in Afghanistan and highlights the struggle between religious conservatives and reformists over how Islam should be used in making laws four years after the ouster of the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban regime.\nThe defendant, 41-yer-old Abdul Rahman, was arrested last month after his family accused him of becoming a Christian said Judge Ansarullah Mawlavezada. Rahman was charged with rejecting Islam and his trial started Thursday.\nDuring the one-day hearing, the defendant confessed he converted from Islam to Christianity 16 years ago while working as a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, Mawlavezada said.\n"We are not against any particular religion in the world. But in Afghanistan, this sort of thing is against the law," the judge said. "It is an attack on Islam."\nMawlavezada said he would rule on the case within two months.\nAfghanistan's constitution is based on Shariah law, which is interpreted by many Muslims to require that any Muslim who rejects Islam be sentenced to death, said Ahmad Fahim Hakim, deputy chairman of the state-sponsored Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.\nRepeated attempts to interview Rahman in detention were barred.\nThe prosecutor, Abdul Wasi, said he had offered to drop the charges if Rahman converted back to Islam, but he refused.\n"He would have been forgiven if he changed back. But he said he was a Christian and would always remain one," Wasi said. "We are Muslims and becoming a Christian is against our laws. He must get the death penalty."\nAfter being an aid worker for four years in Pakistan, Rahman moved to Germany for nine years, his father, Abdul Manan, said outside his Kabul home.
\nRahman returned to Afghanistan in 2002 and tried to gain custody of his two daughters, now ages 13 and 14, who had been living with their grandparents their whole lives, the father said. A custody battle ensued and the matter was taken to the police.\nDuring questioning, it emerged that Rahman was a Christian and was carrying a Bible. He was immediately arrested and charged, the father said.\nAfghanistan is a conservative Islamic country. Some 99 percent of its 28 million people are Muslim, and the remainder are mainly Hindu.
