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Buddha tattoo woman Naomi Coleman wins compensation | Buddha tattoo woman Naomi Coleman wins compensation |
(35 minutes later) | |
A woman who was deported from Sri Lanka for having a tattoo of the Buddha on her arm has won compensation. | |
Naomi Coleman, from Coventry, was detained for four days in April 2014. | |
The country's Supreme Court said her treatment - during which a prison guard made sexually-explicit remarks to her and she was forced to give police money - was "scandalous and horrifying". | |
It ruled her rights had been violated and granted her compensation of 800,000 Sri Lankan rupees - about £4,000. | |
Officers involved in her arrest were also ordered to pay her compensation. | Officers involved in her arrest were also ordered to pay her compensation. |
Ms Coleman, a mental health nurse, took legal action against the Sri Lankan authorities after her return to the UK. | |
The court ruled there was "no legal basis" for her arrest and said she had been subject to "degrading treatment" by some officers and a prison guard. | |
'Really frightened' | 'Really frightened' |
In particular, one guard had "made several lewd, obscene and disparaging remarks of a sexually-explicit nature" towards Ms Coleman, while some police officers had forced her to give them money. | |
Her lawyer JC Weliamuna told the BBC her deportation had been "contrary to the law governing immigration and emigration". | |
Ms Coleman, who was arrested at Bandaranaike International Airport in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, said the detention had left her "really frightened". | |
"I was told I had to go to court and then I started to get really worried," she previously said. | |
After an order was made to have her deported, Ms Coleman spent a night in prison in Negombo and two nights in a detention centre while security checks were carried out. | |
She said she told police she practised Buddhism and had attended meditation retreats and workshops in Thailand, India, Cambodia and Nepal. | She said she told police she practised Buddhism and had attended meditation retreats and workshops in Thailand, India, Cambodia and Nepal. |
Sri Lankan authorities take strict action against perceived insults to Buddhism, which is the religion of the island's Sinhalese population. |