Warzi: Sudanese officials 'difficult'

Some Sudanese officials involved in diplomatic negotiations over the Gillian Gibbons case were said to be "very difficult", according to the Conservative peer responsible for securing the pardon.

Sayeeda Warzi, who has acted as shadow minister for community cohesion since June, returned from Sudan this morning after successfully winning a pardon for British schoolteacher, Gillian Gibbons.

Baroness Warzi is a trained solicitor, respected for her work on prison reform, and crucially also a British Muslim politician.

This milieu armed her with sufficient leverage to approach the Sudanese authorities and appeal the conviction of Ms Gibbons.

But, despite being successful in her mission, Lady Warzi said that some of the east African officials she dealt with had been obstructive.

Explaining the expedition, she said this morning: "On Sunday we spent most of that day having very difficult meetings, some of them quite tense, some of them were very, very difficult.

"And then at the end of Sunday we were presented with some hope that we may be able to see the president on Monday and we may be able to reach a resolution.

"We had that meeting on Monday morning... and thankfully we secured a release."

Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir agreed to grant the pardon yesterday, exonerating Ms Gibbons and releasing her from the remainder of her sentence.