A British teacher jailed in Sudan for insulting Islam by naming a teddy bear Muhammad voiced relief at her release on Tuesday, as she arrived back home after a presidential pardon.
”I’m just an ordinary middle-aged primary school teacher. I went out there to have an adventure and got a lot more adventure than what I was looking for,” Gillian Gibbons joked soon after touching down at London’s Heathrow airport.
The 54-year-old left Khartoum on Monday evening and arrived in Britain on an overnight flight from Dubai, accompanied by two British Muslim members of the House of Lords who helped secure her pardon by Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir.
The teacher, who was smiling but looked tired, said she had been unaware of the media attention the case had generated, but had been horrified at the furore her innocent actions caused.
”I was very upset to think that I may have caused offence to people, very, very upset about it,” she told an impromptu news conference at a VIP lounge in the airport terminal.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke to her by telephone soon after her arrival, his office said.
But despite her incarceration, which she described as ”terrifying”, Gibbons said she bore no ill-will towards Sudan or its people — and was sad to be leaving her class and colleagues so soon after arriving.
”It has been an ordeal but I was well treated in prison and everyone was very kind to me,” she told reporters.
”I am very sorry to leave Sudan. I had a fabulous time. 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.”
”I wouldn’t like to put anyone off going to Sudan,” she continued, thanking Nazir Ahmed and Sayeeda Warsi, the two Muslim peers, and everyone else who helped secure her release.
Gibbons was reunited with her son John and daughter Jessica at the airport, as friends and former colleagues from her home city of Liverpool, north-west England, expressed their delight at her return.
Asked about what she will do next, she said: ”I’m looking for a job because I’m jobless. My immediate plan is to spend Christmas with my family then seriously looking for employment.”
As Gibbons and her family were taken off to an undisclosed location, a spokesperson for Brown said of their conversation: ”He said that he was pleased that she had returned to the UK and wished her well.
”He also made clear that the government stood ready to provide whatever further assistance may be required.” – AFP
