British teacher returns home after Sudan pardon

December 4, 2007 (LIVERPOOL, England) — British teacher Gillian Gibbons, freed from a Sudanese prison, returned to northern England on Tuesday after being pardoned for insulting Islam by allowing her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad.

Her case set off an international outcry and angered many moderate Muslims.

At her son’s Liverpool home, Muslims delivered a message of support and brought a bouquet with the message: “Welcome back, Gillian.”

“It was outrageous, she shouldn’t have been treated that way,” said Dr. Abdul Hamid, 33. «She’s been the victim of something ridiculous. We’re glad she’s back home and her ordeal is all over.

Gibbons took refuge from the media in a hotel, issuing a plea for privacy and time to consider interview requests.

Police sealed off the street in front of her son’s Liverpool home as more than 40 reporters waited outside. Neighbors poked their heads out of their homes to examine the crush of satellite trucks and camera crews.

After traveling through the night from Sudan, Gibbons had told reporters awaiting her arrival at London’s Heathrow Airport that she was stunned by the swift turn of events and by her eight days in jail.

“I’m just an ordinary middle-aged primary school teacher. I went out there to have an adventure, and got a bit more than I bargained for,” she said. “I don’t think anyone could have imagined it would snowball like this.”

Gibbons’ supporters have said the case started when a school secretary with a grudge complained to Sudan’s Ministry of Education that Gibbons had insulted Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. Gibbons’ defense lawyer, Kamal al-Gizouli, and school officials said the secretary was acting out of revenge after she had an argument with the school’s principal, though they could not say the cause of the argument.

No parents of the pupils ever complained, school director Robert Boulos said.

But the case escalated as Muslim clerics in Sudan sought to drum up public outrage, calling the naming of the teddy bear part of a Western plot to insult the prophet and demanding Gibbons be punished.

Gibbons was freed Monday after two Muslim members of Britain’s House of Lords met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. The teacher sent the president a statement saying she did not mean any offense.

Arriving at Heathrow, she said she was «a little shocked» by the media attention.

“It has been an ordeal, but …. I was well treated in prison and everybody was very kind to me,” she said.

Al-Bashir insisted Gibbons had a fair trial, in which she was convicted of insulting Islam’s prophet and sentenced to 15 days in prison, but the president agreed to pardon her during the meeting with the British delegation, said Ghazi Saladdin, a senior presidential adviser.
Gibbons was cautious about answering questions.

When asked her feelings about the offense she was accused of, she said: “I don’t think I really know enough about it to comment really. It’s a very difficult area and a very delicate area.”

She added, «I was very upset to think that I might have caused offense to people.

Gibbons said she learned of the intense media coverage of the story on her second day in prison.

Asked if she was terrified of prison, she said, “That’s an understatement.
“I was in two different prisons,” she added. “I never actually went to the main women’s prison, thankfully. The first one I was at was just like a downtown prison like a lockup. I was treated the same as any other Sudanese prisoner in that you were given the bare minimum.”

«Then I was moved to another prison and there the Ministry of the Interior sent me a bed, which is possibly the best present I’ve ever had.
The trauma has not deterred Gibbons from wanting to teach.

“I’m looking for a job, because I’m jobless,” she said. «So my immediate plan is to spend Christmas with my family, and then very seriously look for employment.

Children and staff at Liverpool’s Garston Church of England Primary School, where Gibbons taught for 12 years until 2000, had been praying for her safe return.

Gibbons asked for time to consider interview requests, through a public relations firm late Wednesday.

«She’s had a long journey home and is thinking about events and just wants to spend some time with her family,» Richard Clein, associate director of Bell Pottinger North, said outside John Gibbons’ home.
Associated Press reporter Robert Barr in London contributed to this report.

(AP)