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On Friday the protestors in the Sudanese capital Khartoum took over the
streets calling for the death of British teacher who was convicted for blasphemy.
Following the Friday evening prayers angry demonstrators,
armed with clubs and knives, gathered in in Martyrs' Square, shouting "no
tolerance - execution" and "kill her, kill her by firing squad"
Journalist Andrew Heavens told Sky News: "There were
signs that this protest was highly orchestrated. This was not the spontaneous
act of a mob."
Gillian Gibbons, 54, was found guilty by a court Thursday
for "insulting religion" after she had allowed her primary school
pupils to name a teddy bear Mohammed.
She was given a 15-day prison term, of which she will serve
the remaining 10 days - after pre-trial detention - in a notorious women's jail
in Khartoum.
During the eight-hour trial Thursday, it emerged that
Gibbons was arrested after an office assistant at the Christian charity school,
Sara Khawad, registered a complaint over the teddy bear to the Ministry of
Education.
Her lawyer Kamal al-Gizouli said she had been moved to
another prison and that her condition was good. Once Gibbons had served her
sentence she would be sent to Britain.
Meanwhile, two Muslim members of the upper house of British
parliament planned Saturday to fly to Sudan on a private mission to negotiate
the freedom of Gillian Gibbons.
Labour's Lord Ahmed, a Pakistani-born businessman who became
Britain's
first Muslim peer in 1998, and Baroness Warsi, a lawyer and member of the
Conservatives' shadow cabinet, announced the plans for the visit which were
welcomed at the Foreign Office.
"Any efforts which complement the efforts which we are
making to secure Mrs. (Gillian) Gibbons' release are very welcome," a
Foreign Office spokesman said.
The two members of British parliament will held a news
conference later Saturday.
Condemnation of the Sudanese decision continued in Britain. In London, Archbishop of
Canterbury Rowan Williams told the BBC: "I can't see any justification for
this at all. I think this is an absurdly disproportionate response to what is
at worst a cultural faux pas."
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