Sudan teddy bear teacher heading home after pardon (From Daily Echo)

Sudan teddy bear teacher heading home after pardon

6:20pm Monday 3rd December 2007 in

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BRITISH teacher Gillian Gibbons was tonight flying home to Britain after more than a week in Sudanese custody.

After speaking to the 54-year-old mother-of-two this afternoon, Foreign Secretary David Miliband welcomed president Omar al-Bashir's decision to officially pardon her today.

Mrs Gibbons was finally released into the care of the British embassy after being jailed for insulting Islam.

The dramatic move came after 48 hours of difficult negotiations between British parliamentarians Lord Ahmed of Rotherham and Baroness Warsi with officials in Khartoum.

Mr Miliband said he had spoken to Lord Ahmed and Mrs Gibbons within the last hour.

"She is in remarkably good spirits," Mr Miliband told reporters.

"She was a little overwhelmed by the amount of coverage she understood this case had received and proud of the way her family had stood up over the last week."

Mr Miliband said he wanted to thank the many diplomatic and consular staff who had helped secure her release.

Mr Miliband said UK opinion had "spanned all religions in wanting a common-sense solution to this case".

"In that context I am happy to welcome the intervention of President Bashir which has brought common-sense to bear and ensured that the welfare of Mrs Gibbons is going to be secured by her early return to the United Kingdom."

Mrs Gibbons, of Aigburth, Liverpool, was sentenced to 15 days in jail and faced deportation for allowing her class of seven-year-olds to call a class teddy bear Mohammed.

Mr Miliband said that Mrs Gibbons had displayed remarkable "steadfastness and good cheer" throughout her ordeal.

"I did say to her that it must have been very tough over the last week and she did say 'Well, it was prison but it wasn't too bad a prison' or words to that effect," he said.

"She has shown very good British grit in very difficult circumstances but I know that the most important thing for her is to get home as soon as possible and return to her family."

Mr Miliband said he hoped that people in Sudan had realised common-sense needed to prevail.

"Gillian Gibbons is a dedicated teacher who wanted to contribute something to the country of Sudan who certainly has been at worst guilty of an innocent misunderstanding and certainly intended no offence," he said.