Update: Abdul Rahman

By Jeff Israely

Facing heavy international pressure, Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government brokered the release of Abdul Rahman, who, under Afghanistan's Shari'a law, had faced the death penalty for converting to Christianity. Two days later, Rahman was spirited to Italy, which granted him asylum. On his arrival, he gave a brief TV interview, thanking the Italian government and Pope Benedict XVI for helping save his life and win his release. But alive doesn't mean totally free. Afghan clerics have denounced Italy and continue to call for Rahman's death, so he will stay under tight police protection in an undisclosed location for the foreseeable future. An Interior Ministry official in Rome tells TIME, "He is a man still very much in peril."