ROME, Italy (AP) – The Afghan man who faced the death penalty for converting from Islam to Christianity went to Rome, the Italian government said yesterday after it granted him asylum, despite requests by lawmakers in Afghanistan that he be barred from leaving his conservative Muslim country.

The case of Abdul Rahman has attracted wide attention in the West and had led to calls by the US and other governments for the Afghan government to protect the convert.

Rahman, 41, was in the care of Italy’s Interior Ministry, Premier Silvio Berlusconi said yesterday evening.

“He is already in Italy,” he said. “I think he arrived overnight.” The premier declined to release more details. The Interior Ministry said Rahman was “under protection.”

After Rahman was jailed in Afghanistan, Pope Benedict XVI appealed to Afghanistan’s president, Hamid Karzai, and the United Nations made efforts to find a country to take him. A Vatican spokesman said yesterday the Holy See had no comment on Rahman’s release and arrival in Italy.

He was released from prison Monday after a court dismissed charges of apostasy against him for lack of evidence and for suspicions he might be mentally ill.

Conversion is a crime under Afghanistan’s Islamic law. Rahman was arrested last month after police discovered him with a Bible. He was brought to trial last week for converting 16 years ago while working as a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

Afghanistan’s new parliament debated Rahman’s case yesterday and demanded he be barred from leaving the country. But no formal vote was taken on the issue.

Some 500 Afghans, including Muslim leaders and students, also gathered at a mosque in the southern Zabul provincial town of Qalat to demand the convert be forced to return to Islam or be killed.

“This is a terrible thing and a major shame for Afghanistan,” said Zabul’s top cleric Abdulrahman Jan.

Germany, where Rahman once lived, praised the Italian move.

“This is a humanitarian signal and we welcome it,” German government spokesman Thomas Steg said.