Top European Court stops deportation of Christian convert

An Afghani Christian who was a convert to Islam has won his fight against deportation from Switzerland back to Afghanistan. He won his case at the European Court of Human Rights. In his country, conversion from Islam to another religion is illegal “apostasy” with punishments ranging from lengthy imprisonment to death.

“Today, the Judges of the Strasbourg Court held that the applicant (identified only as ‘A.A.’) would be compelled to conceal their Christian faith and would in effect ‘be forced to live a lie’ if deported to Afghanistan by the Swiss authorities. The Court was critical of the Swiss authorities and their failure to properly conduct an assessment of the risks and consequences of deporting a Christian convert to Afghanistan. It concluded that this was in breach of Switzerland’s obligations to protect individuals from torture under the European Convention of Human Rights,” said Lorcán Price, Legal Counsel for ADF International in Strasbourg.