diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/api/ApplyCommand.java b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/api/ApplyCommand.java
index 2bda76c32..2147a2e5c 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/api/ApplyCommand.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/api/ApplyCommand.java
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@
 package org.eclipse.jgit.api;
 
 import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileOutputStream;
 import java.io.FileWriter;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
@@ -147,10 +148,14 @@ public ApplyResult call() throws GitAPIException, PatchFormatException,
 				case COPY:
 					f = getFile(fh.getOldPath(), false);
 					byte[] bs = IO.readFully(f);
-					FileWriter fw = new FileWriter(getFile(fh.getNewPath(),
+					FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(getFile(
+							fh.getNewPath(),
 							true));
-					fw.write(new String(bs));
-					fw.close();
+					try {
+						fos.write(bs);
+					} finally {
+						fos.close();
+					}
 				}
 				r.addUpdatedFile(f);
 			}