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29 March 2024

'Buddha tattoo' Brit alleges harassment in Lanka

Published
By Correspondent & Reuters

Colombo: An UK tourist to Sri Lanka alleges harassment by local police because she had a Buddha tattoo on her arm.
 
According to a report in Ceylon Today, Naomi Coleman, 37, - a nurse - was arrested under Section 291 B of the Penal Code for having a tattoo of the Buddha. 

This time, however, a cabbie tipped her off to a policeman, who arrested her and took her to the Immigration and Emigration Department in Colombo where she was questioned

When Ceylon Today asked police spokesman, SSP Ajith Rohana, as to what Coleman's offence was, he said the Penal Code states, "Whoever, with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging religious feelings of any class of persons, by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representations, insults or attempts to insult religion or religious beliefs of that class, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or both."
 
Coleman said she had arrived from India and went through the immigration counter without any hassle. However, when she had come out of the taxi hiring counter at the exit lounge of the Bandaranaike International Airport, a driver following her had spotted the Buddha tattoo on her arm and reported her to a policeman standing outside the exit area.  He took her to Negombo Police Station.
 
Her air ticket was cancelled because she could not travel on the said date. “That cash would be reimbursed only after a couple of weeks in the UK, and I have no money. When I revealed this, the British High Commission told me that I shall be offered an air ticket through the Immigration Department," Coleman said.

She claims to have asked the police why she was not arrested on her previous visits to the country, to which he replied, “Perhaps, no one saw it then."

Coleman alleges that a taxi driver claimed [Sri Lankan] Rs15,000 for dropping her friend from the airport to the Negombo Police Station; that a prison warden had gone through her wallet and asked for money; that her cigarettes were taken and one of the prison officials even made a sexual remark at her.
 
Coleman also alleges that she paid Rs 5,000 to a lawyer, who did not help her or appear for her but who had later told her she will be deported.
 
She plans to lodge a complaint before she leaves the country.
 
"I cried and am still frightened," she added.

Meanwhile, the police who checked with Negombo prison to verify her statement of harassment and money plundering was told that nothing of that sort had taken place.

A Reuters report, meanwhile, says Coleman was deported on Thursday.