Originally published by the Voice of America (www.voanews.com).
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December 3, 2007

British Teacher Released in Sudan
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?ctl=1A73D2D:A6F02AD83191E1605E2D1F1AE936A62C7F0EB4B66EA3A89D& Gillian Gibbons
freed into care of British officials Monday, after receiving pardon
from Sudanese President over Teddy Bear incident





Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir (R) receives two British Muslim
peers, Lord Nazir Ahmed (2L) and Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, from upper
house of parliament, who are in Khartoum to ask for release of British
teacher, 03 Dec 2007The British teacher jailed in Sudan for letting
her students name a teddy bear Muhammad has been released.

Gillian Gibbons was freed into the care of British officials Monday,
after receiving a pardon from Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

President Bashir issued the pardon after a meeting with two British
Muslim lawmakers, Sayeeda Warsi and Nazir Ahmed, who had traveled to
Khartoum in hopes of securing Gibbons' release.

The British teacher was arrested last week and sentenced to 15 days in
prison, to be followed by deportation.

Gibbons issued a statement saying she has great respect for Islam, and
apologizing for any distress she had caused to the people of Sudan.
She is expected to leave the country as soon as possible.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says he is "delighted" that
Gibbons has been released.

In a statement, Mr. Brown said "common sense has prevailed," and
applauded the efforts of the lawmakers who met with Mr. Bashir.

In September, Gibbons allowed her students at a private Khartoum
school to pick their favorite name for a teddy bear as part of a
project on animals. Most of them chose Muhammad, a popular name for
males in Sudan as well as the name of Islam's founding prophet.

Sudan enforces strict Islamic sharia law that makes it a crime to
insult the Islamic religion.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.


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