Judge defends autonomy of Afghan court

The chief judge trying the case of an Afghan man for converting from Islam to Christianity today criticised international calls for his release, saying no one has the right to exert pressure on the court.

Australia’s Prime Minister John Howard on today joined the chorus of Western leaders who have expressed outrage at the case, while in Kabul clerics condemned Abdul Rahman as an apostate who deserved to die.

Howard said he would protest personally to President Hamid Karzai. “This is appalling. When I saw the report about this I felt sick, literally,” Howard told an Australian radio network.

“The idea that a person could be punished because of their religious belief and the idea they might be executed is just beyond belief.”

Rahman, 41, faces the death penalty under Afghanistan’s Islamic laws for converting 16 years ago while working as a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

Ansarullah Mawlavi Zada, the chief among three judges trying the case, said the court should be left to come to its own decision.

“We have a constitution and law here. Nobody has the right to put pressure on us,” he said.

Despite international disapproval over the trial, Zada said there had been no pressure on the court to drop the case.

A spokesman for Karzai declined to comment today about the case, which has put the Afghan leader in an awkward position.

Karzai took power after the ousting of the hard-line Taliban regime in a US-led war in late 2001 and relies on international forces to maintain his still-shaky grip on the country.

But he’ll be reluctant to offend Islamic sensibilities at home, or alienate religious conservatives who wield considerable power.

Diplomats have said the Afghan government is searching for a way to drop the case.

On Wednesday, authorities said Rahman is suspected of being mentally ill and would undergo psychological examinations to see whether he is fit to stand trial.

Yesterday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice phoned Karzai, seeking a “favourable resolution” of the case. She said Washington looked forward to that “in the very near future”.

Senior clerics in the Afghan capital have voiced strong support for the prosecution and again warned today they would incite people to execute Rahman unless he reverted to Islam.

Rahman had “committed the greatest sin” by converting to Christianity and deserved to be killed, cleric Abdul Raoulf said in a sermon at Herati Mosque.

“God’s way is the right way, and this man whose name is Abdul Rahman is an apostate,” he told about 150 worshippers.

Another cleric, Ayatullah Asife Muhseni, told a gathering of preachers and intellectuals at a Kabul hotel that the Afghan president had no right to overturn the punishment of an apostate.

He also demanded clerics be able to question Rahman in jail to discover why he had converted to Christianity. He suggested it could have been the result of a conspiracy by Western nations or Jews.

At a fruit market in Kabul, many ordinary Afghans said they supported the death penalty, but some wanted more investigation before meting out the punishment to find out why Rahman converted to Christianity.

“In the past 30 years, so many Afghans have been killed in name of communism, Taliban and politics or for robbery. It’s enough Afghans killed,” said Ghulam Mohammed, 45, a former army officer.

“Clerics should talk to him (Rahman) and bring him to the right way.”