I had no problems in Nepal and Thailand, says the devout Buddhist
Sri Lankan Supreme Court has granted compensation amounting to Rs.800,000 ($5,200) to a British tourist who was arrested and detained for having a Buddha tattoo on her upper arm, according to the government website.
Police officers on duty at Katunayaka airport who arrested the devout Buddhist British nurse in 2014 were ordered to pay Rs. 50,000 ($326) each personally.
Naomi Michelle Coleman, a mental health nurse, was detained by police and later deported on a court order, contrary to the law governing immigration and emigration.
She has told the Sinhala service of the BBC that she visited Sri Lanka twice in the past and knew there was no law banning Buddha tattoos in Sri Lanka. Coleman said she would not come back.
“I know that the appropriate place to ink a tattoo of the Buddha is above the waist. My one is on my upper arm. I frequently travel to Nepal and Thailand but had no problems in those countries. I agree with the deportation if my tattoo is on my legs,” she said adding that it is a mark of respect for her faith.
Sri Lanka’s top court said the nurse was subjected to “horrifying and scandalous treatment” by local authorities. Coleman was deported three days later by a local magistrate and she sued Sri Lankan police, prison and immigration authorities seeking $66,000 compensation over the ordeal, claiming she was sexually harassed and extorted in prison.
The deportation was ordered by a lower court partly because she could have been “vulnerable” if allowed to stay as some Sri Lankans could have been offended by the tattoo, officials said.
The nurse told AFP that she feared being raped during her incarceration at Negombo prison, after a male guard made lewd gestures at her. A female guard also demanded her to pay a bribe or face a “thorough” body search, she said.
Sri Lanka’s Tourism Promotion Bureau paid for her return ticket to the UK, and expressed regret over the widely-publicised incident which is an embarrassment to the government.
About 70 percent of the island’s 21 million people are Buddhists. Sri Lanka has launched ambitious media campaigns to promote tourism. According to last year’s data 188,159 British tourists visited the island and the former colonial power is placed at the third spot in terms of tourist arrivals, after India and China.
