linux sed unknown option to 's',sed: -e expression #1, char 23: unknown option to `s'

I don't yet know why but in a SVN repository I see this error:

sed: -e expression #1, char 23: unknown option to `s'

sed: -e expression #1, char 23: unknown option to `s'

[rousseau@debian:~/Sources/ … /Debian/SVN/pcsc-lite] $

The error is generated by the line 514:

branch=$(svn info --xml 2>/dev/null | grep "^" | sed "s/.*\/$root\/\([[:alpha:]]*\).*$/\1/")

in the function __svn_branch()

In the SVN repository with the issue I have:

$ svn info --xml

path="."

revision="16139"

kind="dir">

svn+ssh://svn.debian.org/svn/collab-maint/deb-maint/pcsc-lite

svn+ssh://svn.debian.org/svn/collab-maint

19660600-52fe-0310-9875-adc0d7a7b53c

normal

infinity

revision="16132">

rousseau

2010-05-13T12:06:59.049161Z

In another repository without any problem I have:

path="."

revision="6399"

kind="dir">

svn+ssh://svn.debian.org/svn/pcsclite/trunk

svn+ssh://svn.debian.org/svn/pcsclite

0ce88b0d-b2fd-0310-8134-9614164e65ea

normal

infinity

revision="6399">

rousseau

2012-08-02T18:06:38.755308Z

The problem is generated by the unescaped '/' in $root. But I have no idea why I do not have the same problem with my other SVN repositories.