LONDON (AFP) — Prime Minister Gordon Brown welcomed Monday the pardoning by Sudan's president of a teacher jailed for 15 days for naming a teddy bear Mohammed, saying he was "delighted and relieved".
"Common sense has prevailed," he said soon after news of Gillian Gibbons' imminent release was announced, adding that she was to be handed over to the British embassy in Khartoum "after what must have been a difficult ordeal".
"I was delighted and relieved to hear the news that Gillian Gibbons is to be freed," he added in a statement shortly after she was pardoned by Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir.
A Sudanese court last Thursday sentenced Gibbons to 15 days in prison for insulting religion by naming a teddy bear after Islam's prophet at the exclusive English school where she taught in Khartoum.
Brown noted that British Muslim groups had voiced "strong support for her case" and paid tribute to the work of two Muslim members of Britain's unelected upper House of Lords who travelled to Khartoum to seek her release.
"I applaud the particular efforts of Lord (Nazir) Ahmed and Baroness (Sayeeda) Warsi in securing her freedom. I am also grateful to our officials for all their work behind the scenes," he added.
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