S’WAK POLLS Sarawak Chief Minister Adenan Satem has given his assurance that he will look into other cases involving apostasy before coming up with a policy on the matter.

"Now that I have persuaded the federal authorities to withdraw the case against Rooney Rebit, please be rest assured that I will look at the other cases in due time after the election and come up with a clear policy.

"This is especially so in cases where people are left in ‘limbo’,” Adenan said in a statement today.

The chief minister’s response comes after Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian expressed hope that Rebit’s case would not be a ‘one-off’ matter - resolved only during the state election campaign period.

Baru had pointed out how there were many other conversion cases that deserve the same attention from Adenan and Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

This follows Adenan’s confirmation on Monday that he secured the assurance of Najib that the National Registration Department (NRD) would withdraw Rebit’s case and discontinue the appeal against the High Court’s decision.

The NRD also confirmed, yesterday, that it is dropping its appeal on the Rebit case.

Rebit, a Bidayuh who was converted to Islam as a child, had in a landmark ruling on March 24 been granted a declaration by the High Court in Kuching that he is a Christian, in accordance with his constitutional right to freedom of religion, as he is now an adult.

It ordered the NRD to change his name to Rooney Rebit and his religion from Islam to Christianity in his identity card and its records.