Egypt’s highest court in a landmark ruling has allowed 12 Coptic Christians who had converted from Christianity to Islam to convert back to their original religion. The ruling overturns the decision of a lower court which in April 2007 had ruled that conversions from Islam were illegal.

The Court ruling also ordered the Ministry of Interior to amend the identity cards of the men to reflect their new religious status. All Egyptians are required to carry a national identity card which amongst other things shows your religion.

The precedent set by the ruling however is limited in this case to people who had been Christians before converting to Islam and will not provide for people born as Muslims to be able to legally convert.

Conversion away from Islam in Egypt is considered apostasy and in theory may be punishable by death although no such sentence has ever been carried out. Conversion from Christianity to Islam is however allowed and some Coptic Christians do so in order to obtain a divorce which is not allowed in Coptic Christianity.

Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s population and cohabit peacefully with Egypt’s Muslim majority, famous Egyptian Coptic Christians include the Onsi Sawiris founder of the Orascom Group of companies and one the richest men in the world as well as Boutros Boutros Ghali former Secretary General of the United Nations.