Sudan ? A British teacher jailed for letting her students name a teddy bear Muhammad as part of writing project headed home Monday after being pardoned – ending a case that set off an international outcry and angered many moderate Muslims.

Gillian Gibbons, jailed for more than a week, was freed after two Muslim members of Britain’s House of Lords met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and the teacher sent the president a statement saying she didn’t mean to offend anyone with her class project.

“I have a great respect for the Islamic religion and would not knowingly offend anyone,” Gibbons said in the statement, which was released by al-Bashir’s office and read to journalists by British Baroness Sayeeda Warsi.

Al-Bashir, a hard-liner, insisted Gibbons had a fair trial, in which she was convicted of insulting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad, but the president agreed to pardon her during the meeting with the British delegation, said Ghazi Saladdin, a senior presidential adviser.

The 54-year-old Gibbons flew out of the country Monday evening, landing several hours later in Dubai. She was expected in London this morning.