CAIRO, Egypt (AP):

An Egyptian court accepted an appeal yesterday from 45 Copts who were denied the right to reclaim their religious identities after they decided to convert back to Christianity from Islam, a lawyer and court officials said.

A lower administrative court ruled against the plaintiffs on April 29, prohibiting them from res-toring their Christian identities on their national identification cards.

Egypt's Supreme Administrative Court accepted their appeal yesterday and referred the case to a related committee that will make the final ruling, said Mamdouh Nakhlah, a lawyer for 12 of the plaintiffs.

Good step forward

"This is a good step forward," Nakhlah told The Associated Press. "We hope the ruling will be positive."

Court officials said government lawyers objected to Judge Essam Eddin Abdel-Aziz's decision to accept the appeal, arguing the initial verdict issued in April was in line with the principles of Islamic Sharia law.

While Islam accepts Christianity as a fellow monotheistic religion, Sharia law considers conversion to any religion apostasy, which some conservative Muslims say is punishable by death.

The government attorneys planned to dispute the judge's decision, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Accept the appeal

But the director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights expressed support for the judge's decision to accept the appeal.

"Today's ruling is un-doubtedly a step in the right direction," said Hossam Bahgat. "We are hopeful and optimistic that the Supreme Administrative Court will eventually uphold the principles of religious freedom and non-discrimination, both of which are guaranteed under the Constitution and international law."

In the initial ruling, the lower court accused the plaintiffs of "manipulation" for changing from one religion to another.