Sudan pardons 'teddy bear' row teacher

KHARTOUM (AFP) - Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir on Monday pardoned a British woman teacher jailed for 15 days for insulting religion and she will be released in an hour, a presidential advisor told AFP.

"She was pardoned thanks to the mediation of Lord Ahmed and Baroness Warsi. She will be released in about an hour," Mahjoub Fadl Badri told AFP.

A Sudanese court on Thursday jailed Gillian Gibbons to 15 days in prison for insulting religion by naming a teddy bear after the Prophet Mohammed at the exclusive English school where she taught in Khartoum.

Two British Muslim peers, Lord Nazir Ahmed and Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, from the upper house of parliament, were on Monday meeting Beshir at the Republican Palace after flying to Khartoum in order to secure a pardon.

The arrest and jail sentence of the 54-year-old mother of two sparked outrage in Britain and a diplomatic crisis between London and Khartoum, further straining relations already frayed over nearly five years of war in Darfur.