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'I'm very sorry to leave Sudan'
04/12/2007 10:37 - (SA)
London - A British teacher jailed for letting her students name a teddy bear Muhammad as part of a writing project arrived home on Tuesday after being pardoned - ending a case that set off an international outcry and angered many moderate Muslims.
Gillian Gibbons' flight arrived at London's Heathrow Airport shortly after 07:00 GMT.
"I'm looking forward to seeing my family and friends and to have a good rest," she told reporters.
"It has been an ordeal but I was well-treated in prison and everyone was very kind to me."
Gibbons, 54, jailed for more than a week, was freed on Monday after two Muslim members of Britain's House of Lords met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and the teacher sent the president a statement saying she did not mean any offence.
"I have a great respect for the Islamic religion and would not knowingly offend anyone," Gibbons said in the statement, which was released by al-Bashir's office and read to journalists by British Baroness Sayeeda Warsi.
Gibbons left Sudan Monday night, flying via Dubai to London.
"I am very sorry to leave Sudan. I had a fabulous time," Gibbons said.
"It is a beautiful place and I had a chance to see some of the countryside. The Sudanese people I found to be extremely kind and generous and until this happened I only had a good experience."
Her son John, 25, went to the airport from his home in Liverpool.
"I'd like to thank the government for all they have done, the hard work behind the scenes, especially the two peers who went out there. Everyone's been really great," he said.
Al-Bashir insisted Gibbons had a fair trial, in which she was convicted of insulting Islam's Prophet Muhammad 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.
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