Sudan President Pardons British Teacher

KHARTOUM, SUDAN (AP) — Sudan’s president on Monday pardoned a British teacher jailed here for allowing her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad – putting an end to a case that has outraged Britons and Muslims around the world.

The teacher, Gillian Gibbons, said she did not intend to offend anyone and had great respect for Islam. Sudanese officials said she would be released later Monday, the same day two Muslim British politicians met with President Omar al-Bashir to seek the pardon.

“The president has told us he has already signed the papers for her pardon,” Lord Nazir Ahmed, who met al-Bashir along with Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, a fellow representative from Britain’s House of Lords, told reporters afterward.

Sudanese presidential spokesman Mahzoub Faidul told The Associated Press that Gibbons would “be released today and will fly back to England today.” However, travel agents in Sudan said the earliest European-bound flights would not leave Khartoum until the early hours on Tuesday.

British embassy spokesman Omar Daair said “arrangements for her release are being made,” but he would not more provide more details for security reasons.

Gibbons was sentenced on Thursday to 15 days in prison and deportation for insulting Islam because she allowed her students to name a class teddy bear Muhammad, seen as a reference to Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.

The teacher’s conviction under Sudan’s Islamic Sharia law shocked Britons and many Muslims worldwide. It also inflamed passions among many Sudanese, some of whom called for her execution.

Gibbons escaped harsher punishment that could have included up to 40 lashes, six months in prison and a fine. Her time in jail since her arrest last Sunday counts toward the sentence.

In a written statement released by the presidential palace and read by Warsi to reporters, 54-year-old Gibbons said she was sorry if she caused any “distress.”

“I have a great respect for the Islamic religion and would not knowingly offend anyone,” Gibbons said in the statement. “I am looking forward to seeing my family and friends, but I am very sorry that I will be unable to return to Sudan.”

In Britain, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was delighted by news.

“Common sense has prevailed,” Brown said in a statement.

During her trial, the weeping teacher said she had intended no harm.

Her students, overwhelmingly Muslim, chose the name for the bear, and Muhammad is one of the most common names for men in the Arab world. Muslim scholars generally agree that intent is a key factor in determining if someone has violated Islamic rules against insulting the prophet.

But the case was caught up in the ideology that al-Bashir’s Islamic regime has long instilled in Sudan, a mix of anti-colonialism, religious fundamentalism and a sense that the West is besieging Islam.

Concerns for Gibbons’ safety rose after thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and swords and beating drums, burned pictures of her and demanded her execution during a rally in the capital Khartoum on Friday.

The case sparked harsh criticism from many Muslims in the West who said she should have never been arrested. On Monday, Inayat Bunglawala, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, welcomed the news of her pardon.

“It will be wonderful to see her back in the U.K. I am sure she will be welcomed by both Muslims and non-Muslims after her quite terrible ordeal at the hands of the Sudanese authorities,” Bunglawala said.

Sudan’s ambassador in London, Khalid al-Mubarak, said he was “overjoyed” by the news.

“She is a teacher who went to teach our children English and she has helped a great deal and I am very grateful,” al-Mubarak said. “What has happened was a cultural misunderstanding, a minor one, and I hope she, her family and the British people won’t be affected by what has happened.”

The demonstrations in Khartoum “were an argument from the fringe,” al-Mubarak said.