Envoys work to free British teacher

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- Advocates for a British teacher jailed for letting her pupils name a teddy bear Mohammed say they are confident she will be pardoned.

Gillian Gibbons, 54, is being held at a secret location in Khartoum to protect her from mobs of Muslim protesters who say she should be put to death for insulting Islam, the BBC reported Saturday.

Two British Muslim leaders, Lord Nazir Ahmed and Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, flew from London to meet with Gibbons and hope to meet with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, the BBC reported.

"We have it from the top that Sudanese authorities will cooperate in relation to her release," Ahmed's office said Friday.

Gibbons was arrested last week after staff members at Unity High School complained that she had allowed her pupils to name the teddy bear Mohammed as part of a study of animals and their habitats.