Source: International Herald Tribune

Wire Service: AP

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/02/africa/ME-GEN-Egypt-Conversion.php

CAIRO, Egypt: An Egyptian court accepted an appeal Monday from 45 Copts who were denied the right to reclaim their religious identities after they decided to convert back to Christianity from Islam, a lawyer and court officials said.

A lower administrative court ruled against the plaintiffs on April 29, prohibiting them from restoring their Christian identities on their national identification cards.

Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court accepted their appeal Monday and referred the case to a related committee that will make the final ruling, said Mamdouh Nakhlah, a lawyer for 12 of the plaintiffs.

"This is a good step forward," Nakhlah told The Associated Press. "We hope the ruling will be positive."

Court officials said government lawyers objected to Judge Essam Eddin Abdel-Aziz's decision to accept the appeal, arguing the initial verdict issued in April was in line with the principles of Islamic Sharia law.

While Islam accepts Christianity as a fellow monotheistic religion, Sharia law considers conversion to any religion apostasy, which some conservative Muslims say is punishable by death.