International pressure is mounting on Afghanistan over the case of a man who faces the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity.
The trial of Abdul Rahman is being billed as a test of freedom for key US ally Afghanistan, where religion retains a tight grip on society four years after the toppling of the fundamentalist Taliban regime.
Washington says it is watching closely how Kabul deals with Rahman, 41, who is believed to be the first convert accused in Afghanistan under strict Islamic Sharia law for refusing to become Muslim again.
Germany, where Rahman reportedly lived for nine years before returning to his war-scarred homeland, has called on Afghan President Hamid Karzai to step in and save him.
Supreme Court Judge Ansarullah Mawlavizada told reporters that Rahman converted 16 years ago while working for a Christian aid organisation in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar. He did not name the group.
The case has sparked outrage in many Western countries, with US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack on Monday urging the Afghan authorities to deal with the proceedings transparently and according to the rule of law.
"Our view certainly ... is that tolerance, freedom of worship, is an important element of any democracy," he said. "These are issues, as Afghan democracy matures, that they are going to have to deal with increasingly."
McCormack said Afghanistan, which has become a major ally in Washington's war on the al-Qaeda network, was debating varying constitutional interpretations of religious freedom.
Nicholas Burns, under secretary of state for political affairs, told journalists on Tuesday the case concerned broader freedoms, which he said were enshrined in the Afghan statutes.
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