Riot police surrounded a Sudanese court as proceedings began Thursday against a British teacher charged with inciting religious hatred over letting her pupils name a teddy bear Muhammad reports the New York Times.
Gillian Gibbons, in a dark blue jacket and blue dress, was not handcuffed when she walked into the courtroom in Khartoum, according to reporters who were briefly allowed inside but were subsequently dismissed.
The case, which has drawn international condemnation, set up an escalating diplomatic dispute with Britain, Sudan’s former colonial ruler.
If convicted, Gibbons faces up to 40 lashes, six months in jail and a fine, Sudanese officials have said, with the verdict and any sentence up to the ”discretionary power of the judge.”
Prosecutor-General Salah Eddin Abu Zaid told The Associated Press earlier Thursday that the British teacher can expect a ”swift and fair trial.”
”It’s up to the judge, but from a consular point of view, we would like to be present,” British Consul Russell Philipps said amid a crowd of about 100 people, mostly media, trying to get in.
Read it here: Briton Appears in Sudan Court for naming Teddy Bear Muhammad