The schoolteacher jailed by Sudan for allowing students to name a teddy bear Mohammed was pardoned and released in Khartoum on Monday.

Gillian Gibbons, 54, was sentenced to 15 days in jail last Thursday for what conservative Muslims consider a sacrilege, but on Monday, President Omar al-Bashir pardoned her six days before the sentence ended, CNN reported.

Two Muslim members of Britain's House of Lords reportedly lobbied Bashir for the woman's release, CNN said.

The men met privately with Gibbons Saturday, who told them she was being treated well, they told reporters.

On Friday, hundreds of Muslim protesters rallied in front of the presidential palace and called for Gibbons to be executed under Islamic sharia law.

After a debriefing at the British embassy, Gibbons and the two parliamentarians were scheduled to fly back to London, the report said. // Copyright 2007 by United Press International


Publication date: 03 December 2007   

Source:

Archive