(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-12-04 20:48

"I was very upset to think that I might have caused offense to people," she added.

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 treated the same as any other Sudanese prisoner in that you were given the bare minimum," she said. "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."

What Britain and Gibbons' supporters said was a misunderstanding over the teddy bear escalated into a diplomatic flap between London and Khartoum - and the show of outrage in Sudan that puzzled many in the West.

Hard-line Muslim clerics in Sudan denounced Gibbons, saying she intentionally aimed to insult Islam. A day after her Thursday trial, several thousand Sudanese massed in central Khartoum to demand that Gibbons be executed.

"Common sense has prevailed," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in a statement expressing delight over Gibbons' release.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband praised Gibbons, saying that "she's shown very good British grit in very difficult circumstances."

Gibbons, who was arrested Nov. 25, was sentenced to 15 days in prison and deportation under Sudan's Islamic Sharia law for having the teddy bear project for her class of 7-year-olds at the private Unity High School. She could have been punished with up to 40 lashes, six months in prison and a fine.

In the project, she had a student bring in a teddy bear, then asked her pupils to vote on a name for it. They chose Muhammad, a common name among Muslim men. The students took the bear home individually to write diary entries on it, which were then compiled into a book with the bear's picture on it and the title "My Name is Muhammad," school officials said.

Gibbons' defenders said the project was a common one in British schools.

The trial was sparked when a school secretary complained to the Education Ministry that Gibbons aimed to insult Islam's prophet.

The private English-language school, with elementary to high school levels, was founded by Christian groups, but 90 percent of its students are Muslim, mostly from upper-class Sudanese families.

Lord Nazir Ahmed, part of the British delegation that met with al-Bashir, said the case was an "unfortunate misunderstanding" and stressed that Britain respected Islam. He added that he hoped "the relations between our two countries will not be damaged by this incident."

Muslim scholars generally agree that intent is a key factor in determining if someone has violated Islamic rules against insulting the prophet.

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