CAIRO: A Christian woman who was sentenced to three years imprisonment for allegedly fraudulently stating that she is Christian on her marriage certificate, was released Monday, her lawyer told Daily News Egypt.
Shadia Nagui Ibrahim, 47, was unaware that legally she was a Muslim as a result of her father s conversion from Christianity to Islam when she was two years old.
Ibrahim was initially charged in 2000 with forging her official identity card in order to state that she was Christian, and was sentenced to three years in absentia before the case was subsequently dropped.
She was detained again in August 2007 on the same charges and the following November, she was handed a three-year prison sentence after a brief court session, her legal representative said at the time.
Ibrahim s lawyer Peter El-Naggar told Daily News Egypt that his client had her conviction suspended Sunday after the defense proved that the identity card in question never actually existed.
The Court of Cassation is now due to issue a new verdict, though this will take years.
This conviction was a big mistake, El-Naggar said, but we hope this case will set a precedent for other Christians who want to convert back from Islam to Christianity.
The Director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, Hossam Baghat, told Daily News Egypt that Ibrahim s initial conviction was a violation of the law, adding that even if she had forged the documents she should not have been charged in the first place.
In our view, Shadia should never have been arrested. She is a Christian, and she always was a Christian.
According to El-Naggar, Ibrahim and her family were delighted with the ruling.
On Feb 9, El-Naggar will be at the Higher Administrative Court representing a group of Christian converts to Islam who are trying to convert back to Christianity.
