ROME — An Afghan who faced the death penalty in his homeland for converting from Islam to Christianity said he was certain he would have been killed had he stayed there, and he thanked Pope Benedict XVI for intervening on his behalf.

"In Kabul, they would have killed me, I'm sure of it," said Abdul Rahman, who was spirited out of Afghanistan to a secret location in Italy. "If you are not a Muslim in an Islamic country like mine, they kill you. There are no doubts."

He said his case was to serve as an example "to others who dared rebel."

Rahman's comments, in a short interview to Italian journalists, came hours after Italy formally granted him asylum, citing religious persecution, the ministry said.

Video on Italian television evening news showed a few people gathered around a small table. It never showed Rahman's face and the Interior Ministry has said that Rahman was "under protection."

The pope had appealed to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and the United Nations sought a country to take him in after Muslim clerics in Afghanistan threatened his life, saying his conversion was a "betrayal to Islam."

Benedict wrote to Karzai on March 22 that dropping the case "would bestow great honor upon the Afghan people and would raise a chorus of admiration in the international community."

Since his arrival in Italy, the Vatican has made no comment.