My initial reaction on hearing tonight's news that Liverpool schoolteacher Gillian Gibbons has been jailed for 15 days in Sudan was one of relief.
Considering that she could have faced the barbaric punishment of being lashed 40 times, or been given several months in prison, the sentence she faces appears mild by comparison.
One imagines that her rapid conviction for the offence of inciting hatred was politically motivated, with the intention of bringing this high profile case to a swift conclusion.
But the reality is that Mrs Gibbons has committed no crime. It is transparent on any sensible analysis that she meant absolutely no insult to anyone's religion, and that her motives in naming a teddy bear Mohammed were completely innocent, if perhaps a little misguided given the benefit of hindsight.
For a respectable 54 year-old mother of two to face the ordeal of 15 days imprisonment in such circumstances is utterly outrageous.
Reading about the circumstances of her trial, with no media present and an attempt made by police to keep out even her own lawyer, tells you all you need to know about justice Sudan-style.
The Foreign Office is right to express disappointment at her conviction and sentence. Justice will only be served in this case if Mrs Gibbons is immediately released, and then compensated by the Sudanese government for the nightmarish experience she has been subjected to. Can't see it happening though. Can you?
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