UK Works to Free Teacher in Teddy Bear Flap

Brown: Embassy is 'giving all appropriate consular assistance'
By Sam Gale Rosen,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 27, 2007 1:06 PM CST
UK Works to Free Teacher in Teddy Bear Flap
British teacher Gillian Gibbons has not yet been charged with any crime in the teddy bear flap.   ((c) gsf747)

Gordon Brown said today that UK officials are working to free the British citizen being held in Sudan for allowing her students to name a teddy bear "Mohammed." Gillian Gibbons was accused of blasphemy and faces prison time or 40 lashes. The British embassy in Khartoum is "giving all appropriate consular assistance to her," the PM said.

Gibbons can be held for only 24 hours under Sudanese law until she is charged with a crime, reports CNN, but she has now spent 2 days in custody. A Sudanese official says Gibbons may not be punished. "If the intentions are good, definitely she will be absolved and will be cautioned not to repeat this thing again," said the undersecretary for foreign affairs. (More Gordon Brown stories.)

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