Since filing the petition in early August, Hegazy has gone through three lawyers with the first lawyer Mamdouh Nakhlah dropping the case after allegedly receiving death threats, according to Compass Direct News.
However, the lawyer said at a press conference that he did not want to cause greater division in the country and blamed Hegazy for not giving him the proper paperwork proving Egyptian officials rejected his application.
Meanwhile, the Orthodox Coptic Church - Egypt's largest Christian tradition - has distanced itself from the controversy.
"There is no link between the church and the Hegazy affair," said Father Marcos, a bishop close to Pope Shenouda III, according to the Middle East Times on Tuesday.
There is no law in Egypt banning conversion from Islam, but the country's Muslims look upon apostasy very negatively with some even calling for punishment by death.
Hegazy said he was detained and tortured by Egyptian police for three days after they found out about his conversion, he told AP. He was again arrested in 2001 after he published a book of poems criticizing the country's security services.
Hegazy's case has put the media spotlight on the inequality of religious conversion in Egypt. Although it is close to impossible for Muslims to legally change their status to Christianity, Christians are free to convert to Islam.
Between 2000 and 2006, some 7,000 Christians legally became Muslims, according to a statement last year by Egypt's top Muslim cleric, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Muhammad Sayed Tantawi.
Egypt's population of 80 million is composed of about 90 percent Muslims and only about 10 percent Christians. Although the percentage of Christians in Egypt is small, it represents the largest Christian population in the Middle East.
In September, the country will confront another convert case when Egypt's Supreme Court hears the case of 12 former Coptic Christians who want to legally revert back to Christianity.
