Agencies/Colombo
A British nurse jailed in Sri Lanka for sporting a Buddha tattoo left the country yesterday after suffering what she says was sexual and other harassment by prison officers.
Naomi Coleman said she was exhausted but relieved to be heading home after she was arrested at the main international airport on Monday and sent to a jail and a deportation centre.
The 37-year-old had been planning a holiday on the majority Buddhist island when she was detained over the tattoo on her upper right arm which Sri Lankan authorities found offensive.
“I have been treated very badly. I am exhausted,” Coleman told AFP as she waited to board a Sri Lankan Airlines flight to London.
“I just want to go home,” said Coleman, a mental health nurse from Coventry.
Coleman has told AFP that she feared being raped while in Negombo prison near the airport after a male guard made lewd gestures indicating that he wanted to have sex with her.
“I was subject to sexual harassment,” she said. “I did not feel safe.”
A female guard at Negombo also demanded a bribe to avoid undergoing a “thorough” body search, she said. Coleman spent one night in the prison before being transferred to a detention centre in Colombo.
Commissioner-general of prisons Chandhrarathna Pallegama said he would investigate any formal allegations against his staff.
“I don’t think anything like this has happened, but if she is willing to make a (formal) complaint, I assure you that we will investigate and take very strong action,” Pallegama told AFP.
Sri Lanka’s official Tourism Promotion Bureau paid for her return ticket and has expressed regret at the entire incident.
A local magistrate ordered her jailing and deportation on Monday after police arrested her for having the tattoo of a Buddha seated on a pink lotus flower.
Coleman has insisted that she was a devout Buddhist and the tattoo was out of respect and conviction.
Sri Lanka barred another British tourist from entering the island in March last year for showing “disrespect” to Buddhism by having a Buddha tattooed on his arm.
Naomi Coleman
