A 41-year-old Afghan citizen who faces execution over his 1990 conversion from Islam to Christianity is getting support from the Seventh-day Adventist Church as well as leaders worldwide.

Global attention was drawn this week to the case of Abdul Rahman, who once worked for a Christian relief agency and who lived for several years in Germany. Now living in his native Afghanistan, Rahman was reported to Islamic authorities in the course of a custody dispute involving his ex-wife and children. Under Islamic Shari’a law, which is part of the Afghan legal system, a Muslim who rejects the religion and does not return can be put to death.

“For those who defend religious freedom, what is happening in Afghanistan is not a surprise,” says Dr. John Graz, director of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty for the Seventh-day Adventist Church. “There are several countries in the world that follow similar practices and the world seems to ignore that. Leaders of democratic countries must know what happens in Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Sudan when a Muslim wants to change [their] religion.”

United Nations Liaison director for the Adventist Church Dr. Jonathan Gallagher, adds: “I am currently at [a meeting of] the U.N. Commission for Human Rights, and this is very much an issue here. This case has hit the headlines, since it exemplifies the major threat posed to the free exercise of religion in under certain regimes—not just Afghanistan. It is tragic that in a country that has seen so much involvement from the world community in developing open and free government that a citizen’s life is under threat simply for exercising his constitutional right to practice his religion of choice.”

Several national leaders including the president of the United States have expressed concern over the Rahman case, and media reports indicate that such appeals may be having a positive result. According to the Deutsche Welle network in Germany, Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai has assured both German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper that Rahman would not face the death penalty.

Harper told reporters in Ottawa that Afghan President Hamid Karzai has assured Canada about the case: “I phoned President Karzai personally to express our concern. He conveyed to me that we don’t have to worry about any such eventual outcome.”