In the name of God

Abdul Rahman is to be put on trial for his life in Afghanistan, charged with denying Islam. The evidence against him is his self-professed conversion to Christianity. He has refused to renounce his faith even though he faces the death penalty.

The Times interviewed the judge who will be trying the case:

"The Attorney General is emphasising he should be hung. It is a crime to convert to Christianity from Islam. He is teasing and insulating his family by converting," Judge Alhaj Ansarullah Mawlawy Zada, who will be trying his case, told The Times.

"He was a Muslim for 25 years more than he has been a Christian. We will request him to become a Muslim again. In your country two women can marry I think that is very strange. In this country we have the perfect constitution, it is Islamic law and it is illegal to be a Christian and it should be punished," said the judge.

If Judge Zada, who is head of the Primary Court, passes the death penalty under Afghan law, Mr Rahman still has two avenues of appeal, the Provincial Court and the Supreme Court. The death penalty then has to be ratified by President Hamid Karzai.

To demand that someone be put to death for their beliefs is simply and self-evidently evil. The outcome of this grotesque prosecution is not (as the Times report goes on to suggest) a test of religious freedom in Afghanistan. The country failed that test when Abdul Rahman was arrested for his "crime".