A person who left Islam and converted to Christianity was sentenced to death for apostasy in Libya. The man, who converted to Christianity nearly four years ago, was sentenced to death by an appeals court in Misrata, northwestern Libya. He was arrested several times by law-abiding armed groups in the country, which lacks a stable governance system, but was sentenced to death for apostasy as a result of his eventual refusal to convert back to Islam.
The Maliki school, dominant in Libya, mandates the death penalty for adult men and women who abandon Islam. Like other Sunni schools, the Maliki school allows three days for apostates to repent before being sentenced to death.
Libya’s General National Congress (GNC, 2012 to 2014) passed a law punishing apostates from Islam with the death penalty. The Libyan Supreme Court in Tripoli has ruled the General National Congress illegal, but the courts have been allowed to continue applying laws passed by the GNC, including the death penalty for apostasy.
Only a handful of countries have this aspect of Islamic law in their national laws.
Credit: Barnabas Aid