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TERRIFIED teddy bear row teacher Gillian Gibbons was being held in a secret jail last night — after a 10,000-strong armed mob took to Sudan’s streets screaming: “Kill her, kill her.”
The Liverpool mum of two — convicted of insulting Islam by calling the bear Mohammed — was sneaked out of the capital Khartoum hours after being jailed for 15 days.
Fanatics demanding her execution by firing squad streamed out of mosques after prayers — grabbing machetes, knives and clubs. The hate-filled protesters — whipped into a frenzy by religious leaders — converged on the presidential palace as it emerged Gillian was an INNOCENT victim of a vindictive school secretary.
Pictures of Gillian, 54, were burned as hardline clerics in pick-up trucks chanted through loudhailers: “No one lives who insults the prophet.”
Hundreds of riot police refused to intervene — even though the demo threatened to spiral out of control. Fearful officials moved their prisoner to a different jail for her own safety.
Hundreds of placard-waving extremists marched on the city’s Unity High School — where Gillian taught. She was jailed even though the bear, used in a project on animals, was named by her PUPILS after one of their classmates.
Demonstrators then headed towards the nearby British Embassy — before security forces finally stopped them.
Spiteful
Yesterday Gillian described her ordeal as a “nightmare” during a visit by her lawyer.
She told Kamal Djizouri: “It was my dream to come here so why should I have come and then insulted Islam?
“I still can’t believe this. Never in my life would I have ever thought I would be accused of deliberately insulting someone or something.
“I am simply not like that. I just feel so sad. It has been a nightmare.”
Gordon Brown yesterday vowed to do everything possible to get Gillian released and spoke to her son to express his “regret” at the shocking mob scenes. Worried John, 25, said: “At the moment the family have no plans to go to Sudan. We are taking advice from the Foreign Ofiice.”
Details also emerged of how the teacher was reported for allegedly insulting the prophet.
Emails sent from the school to a sympathiser who was shocked at the teacher’s fate reveal a spiteful secretary was to blame. A senior member of staff said Unity High office assistant Sarah Khawad had meant to get HER into trouble.
She wrote: “I think her motive was personal only and I think it was meant for me to be arrested not Gillian. Sarah is one of the most despised people in the world right now.”
Gillian, from Aigburth, Liverpool, escaped receiving 40 lashes but was instead thrown into one of Sudan’s most hellish prisons.
She is likely to serve ten days — after already spending five in a cell. She will then be deported. Protesters yesterday were adamant she MEANT to offend Islam.
Sword-waving Yassin Mubarak raged: “What she did requires her life to be taken.” Hardline cleric Abdul-Jalil Nazeer al-Karouri declared: “Imprisoning this lady does not satisfy the thirst of Muslims in Sudan.”
Mike Gates, head of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, branded Sudan’s reaction “deplorable”.
Gillian’s lawyer insisted the government backed the protests. Mr Djizouri said: “All these demonstrations are organised — they are never spontaneous.”
The Muslim Council of Great Britain branded the protests “an obscene over-reaction”. Spokesman Inayat Buglawala said: “People should remember that this is all over a teddy bear.” Dr Khalid al-Mubarak, of the Sudanese Embassy in London, blamed the demonstrations on “hothead”.
Muslim Labour peer Lord Ahmed was last night on his way to Sudan with Tory Baroness Sayeeda Warsi to meet President Omar al-Bashir and push for Gillian’s release.
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