British teacher Gillian Gibbons was arrested for supposedly "insulting the Prophet Mohammed", a violation of article 125 of the Sudanese criminal law which covers insults against faith and religion.
Her alleged crime was to allow her class of seven-year olds to name a teddy bear Mohammed in a class vote, which parents objected to.
There is no specific, or explicit ban in the Koran on images of Allah or the Prophet Mohammed - be they carved, painted or drawn.
However, chapter 42, verse 11 of the Koran does say: "(Allah is) the originator of the heavens and the earth... (there is) nothing like a likeness of Him."
Sudan has been governed by strict Islamic Sharia law since 1983.
In September 2006 a Sudanese newspaper editor, Mohamed Taha, was kidnapped and beheaded by a mob of Darfuri men after he reprinted a series of "insulting" articles questioning the roots of the Prophet Mohammed.
PA