Freedom of religion and Freedom from religion

Its funny to watch the Abdul Rahman's case in Afghanistan. The poor soul converted from Islam to Christianity 16 yrs ago. He faces a death sentence in his own country for insulting his former religion and the punishment for apostasy according to sharia law is death. This had me thinking what sharia laws have to say about apostasy and I came across this article on wikipedia about apostasy. Well the punishment is certainly death and this to any sane person would be laughable !! Just changing your religion could incite people to kill you ??? Recently Dalai Lama unequivocally said to be spiritual one doesn't need to be religious.
Now I read that Mr. Rahman is being released from the prison by only after the huge pressure from United states, Europe and non Islamic countries. These people found a loop hole and so now Mr. Rahman is being termed Demented and unable to stand trial. Going by what I am seeing on television I think Mr. Rahman should flee Afghanistan to some safe democratic and non Islamic country. But the sad truth is he will never be able to live in public anymore and chances of him being attacked by some religious zealot are very high.