24 March 2006 :
Afghan President Hamid Karzai assured Canada that Abdur Rahman, a man facing possible execution for converting to Christianity, would not be put to death, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said.Harper had called Karzai on March 22 to express his concern over the case of Rahman, who an Afghan judge said had been jailed for converting from Islam to Christianity and could face death if he refused to become a Muslim again. "He (Karzai) certainly conveyed to me that we don't have to worry about any such eventual outcome. He had already spoken prior to my call to the attorney-general of Afghanistan about dealing with the situation," Harper told a news conference.
An Afghan judge dealing with the case said that the judiciary would not bow to outside pressure over the eventual fate of Rahman, who had yet to be charged.
(Sources: Reuters, 24/03/2006)