Thanks to a proposal by the foreign minister Gianfranco Fini, Italy has offered political asylum to Abdul Rahman, the Afghan citizen who risked being sentenced to death in his home country because he had converted from the Muslim faith to Christianity. Rahman was freed from prison following protests and criticisms from western countries demanding that Afghanistan should respect international law on freedom of religion and human rights. He was released from prison when the case against him was dismissed on the grounds that he was mentally unfit to stand trial. Rahman is already in Italy.