Afghan convert Said Musa released!

Said Musa has been released!

After intense diplomatic pressure, authorities released Afghan Christian Said Musa, who had been in prison for nearly nine months on charges of apostasy (leaving Islam), punishable by death under Islamic law, reports Compass Direct News.

VOM sources have confirmed Said’s freedom. Praise the Lord!

A source in Afghanistan told Compass that the 46-year-old Musa (alternately spelled Sayyed Mussa) was released last week and had left the country on February 21, but the date of his release was not clear.

Musa had written a series of letters from his prison cell, the last one dated February 13, according to Compass sources. In that letter Musa, an amputee and a father of six, said that representatives of embassies in Kabul visited him and offered him asylum.

After the representatives left, according to the letter, Musa was taken to another room where three Afghan officials tried to convince him to recant his faith. They promised to release him from prison within 24 hours if he would do so. He refused and was sent back to his cell.

“I told them I cannot [follow] Islam,” he wrote in his letter. “I am Jesus Christ’s servant. They pushed me much and much. I refused their demands.”

Details of Musa’s release remained confidential in order to protect him and his family, who still remain in danger, sources said.

Praise God for Said’s release! Pray the Lord will swiftly reconnect him with his family. Pray for their safety and well-being and that Said would be encouraged to continue standing up for his faith in Jesus Christ.

Also, continue praying for fellow Afghan Christian Shoaib Assadullah, who has been in a holding jail in a district of Mazar-e-Sharif, in northern Afghanistan, since October. A recent letter from him suggests that his life is in danger. Assadullah was arrested on October 21 for giving a New Testament to a man who then reportedly turned him in to authorities.

Compass Direct reports that Assadullah, who has no legal representation, has also been pushed to recant his faith. Authorities have tried to build a case that he is insane in order to explain his change of faith and possibly to justify a more lenient sentence for him, sources have said. Sources said that there are diplomatic efforts underway for the secure release of Assadullah.

Christian Convert from Islam facing execution in Afghanistan

Pray for Said Musa's release.

Said Musa, who was imprisoned in Afghanistan for converting from Islam to Christianity, is reportedly facing execution.

In the second week of February, an Afghan judge allegedly informed Said that he would be hanged within days if he did not renounce his faith in Christ and reconvert to Islam.

A 15-year employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kabul, Afghanistan, Said was arrested on May 31, 2010, after a television station in Kabul broadcast images that allegedly showed Western Christians baptizing Afghans. Since his arrest, he has remained in Kabul Detention Center, where he has reportedly suffered sexual assault and torture and been denied access to a lawyer.

Godfrey Yogarajah, the Executive Director of The Religious Liberty Commission of the World Evangelical Alliance, recently called attention to the illegal and unjust treatment of Said. "The arrest of Said in the first place and the subsequent demands for death for apostasy violate at least three provisions of the Constitution of Afghanistan," he said.

Said's trial is reportedly the first for apostasy that has reached near execution since the Taliban's fall.

Pray for God's enduring comfort and peace for Said in prison. Pray that, even in chains, he will exalt and praise the Lord. Pray for his release. Pray also for Said's wife and six children, who fled to Pakistan after his arrest, that they, too, will continue to find strength in Christ.

Execution trial of Afghan convert is illegal

Said Musa's arrest violates
Afghanistan Constitution says
WEA-RLC.

In early December 2010, we introduced you to Said Musa, an Afghan citizen and 15-year employee of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Kabul, Afghanistan. Said was arrested on May 31, 2010, for converting to Christianity from Islam and has been imprisoned ever since.

Said, 45, was arrested after a television station in the capital city of Kabul broadcast images that allegedly showed Westerner Christians baptizing Afghans. Since the May 2010 telecast, Said has remained in Kabul Detention Center and suffered sexual assault and torture with apparently no access to a lawyer to defend him.

Last week, an Afghan judge told Said he had days to reconvert to Islam or be executed.

On Saturday, The Religious Liberty Commission of the World Evangelical Alliance reported that Said’s trial violates the Constitution of Afghanistan (2004) and must be stopped.

“The arrest of Said in the first place and the subsequent demands for death for apostasy violate at least three provisions of the Constitution of Afghanistan, leave aside the illegality of the inhuman treatment meted out to him in the prison,” said WEA-RLC Executive Director Godfrey Yogarajah.

Article 130 of the Constitution states that courts can rely on the Shariah law as per the Hanafi jurisprudence only within the limits of the Constitution and only if a “pending” case does not relate to any provisions in the Constitution or any other law, Yogarajah said.

A case can be pending only is it is first registered under a law, but apostasy is not a crime recognized in the Constitution or any other statutory law, Yogarajah pointed out.

Additionally, Afghanistan is a signatory (1983) to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

The three clauses under Article 18 of the ICCPR state:

1. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.
2. No one shall be subject to coercion, which would impair his freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice.
3. Freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs may be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health, or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others.

While Article 3 of the Constitution says that no law can be contrary to “the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam,” this is a contradiction the earlier constitutions of the country had since 1923. But after the inclusion of Article 7, which carries a pledge to abide by international conventions, in the 2004 Constitution, the interpretation of Article 3 needs to be reformulated in light of the glaring contradiction, said Yogarajah.

The addition of the provision of Article 7 in the 2004 Constitution was surely not without a purpose, and nor was it an oversight. It was indisputably added to increase the nation’s commitment and compliance to international standards of civil rights.

“Calls for the death of an alleged apostate by extremist elements are understandable, but when the administration seeks death penalty for a convert by the misuse of the vagueness in laws, it raises serious concerns,” said Yogarajah.

Said, whose wife and six children fled to Pakistan after his arrest, is the first trial for apostasy that has reached near execution since the Taliban’s fall. But it is hoped and prayed that the administration of Afghanistan will do nothing that will denote an utter failure of the new regime as well as the international community.

Please pray for Said Musa and his family!

Afghan authorities block lawyer from visiting jailed Christian

Said Musa
(Photo courtesy
Release International)

Last week, we told you about Said Musa, an Afghanistan Christian who was arrested in May after video footage, showing Afghan Christians being baptised and participating in prayer gatherings, was televised nationally. The broadcast triggered protests throughout the country along with calls to execute Christians.

Said (alternatively spelled Sayed Mossa) is a father of six and an amputee with a prosthetic leg. Since his arrest, he has been tortured, abused and threatened with death. He has been unable to find an Afghan lawyer willing to represent him, and his family has been unable to access his file that includes the charges against him.

His trial, which was to take place on November 21, was postponed.

Compass Direct News is reporting today that, two weeks ago, a Christian lawyer traveled to Kabul on behalf of Christian legal rights organization Advocates International to represent Said. Authorities denied the lawyer access to Said and to his indictment file.

“If a man is not entitled to define his own beliefs, and to change those ideas, under the existing constitutional order of Afghanistan, then how is this government more moral than the Taliban’s?” the lawyer said in an email to Compass Direct News.

Said finally appeared before a judge on November 27 and without prior notice. Rejecting the case file as deficient, the judge sent it to the attorney general’s office for corrections, according to the lawyer. The lawyer said he has deduced that the file was missing a formal indictment and other “incriminating” evidence.

Afghan law says that Said is entitled to see a copy of the indictment and review the evidence against him, but authorities have denied him both rights. If the prosecutor does not present the court with an indictment within 15 days of arrest, the lawyer said, an accused person has the right to be released.

You can read the full report here.

Please continue to pray for Said Musa’s release from prison and for his safety and well-being. Pray that he will remain courageous and willing to share the love of Christ with those around him.