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Teacher, Freed By Sudan, Back Home In Liverpool

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The Associated Press

Published: December 5, 2007

LONDON - British schoolteacher Gillian Gibbons plans to get back to the classroom once she finishes celebrating her release from a Sudanese jail.

"I'll be looking for a job," she said Tuesday morning after her arrival at London's Heathrow Airport, where she was met by her overjoyed son and daughter, John and Jessica.

Gibbons, 54, a primary school teacher from the northern town of Liverpool, was sentenced to jail by a Sudanese court for insulting Islam in an incident involving a teddy bear.

She couldn't stop smiling as she said she was "very glad to be back and a little shocked at the media attention I have been getting."

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."

Asked if she was terrified of prison, Gibbons 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."

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

At her son's home, British Muslims delivered a message of support.

"It was outrageous; she shouldn't have been treated that way," Abdul Hamid said. "She's been the victim of something ridiculous. We're glad she's back home and her ordeal is all over."

Gibbons' supporters have said the case started when a school secretary with a grudge, Sarah Khawad, complained to the Ministry of Education that Gibbons had insulted Islam's Prophet Muhammad. Gibbons' lawyer, Kamal al-Gizouli, and school officials said Khawad acted out of revenge after she had an argument with the principal.

No parents ever complained, school director Robert Boulos said. However, the case escalated as Muslim clerics in Sudan seeking to drum up public outrage called the naming of the teddy bear part of a Western plot to insult the prophet and demanded 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.

Information from the Los Angeles Times was used in this report.

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