http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/c ... on-7035508
Naomi Coleman was deported from Sri Lanka for having a tattoo of Buddha on her arm
A nurse has told of her horrific ordeal after being locked up in a Sri Lankan prison because of a tattoo of Buddha on her arm.
Back at home in Spon End, Coventry, Naomi Coleman says she was treated like a ‘‘common criminal’’.
She was arrested at the airport in the capital Colombo after the tattoo of a Buddha seated on a lotus flower was spotted on her right arm.
A judge ruled that she would be deported and was made to spend the days leading up to her flight home in a prison cell and then a detention centre.
Naomi, aged 37, said: “It was horrific and I was treated like a common criminal just for having a tattoo. I was thrown in prison among people who had done all sorts of crimes.
“I had heard of things like this in other countries, but this was just something else.”
The nightmare began when Naomi landed at Bandaranaike International Airport, having flown from India, for a holiday which would eventually take her to the Maldives.
She was approached in the airport by a taxi driver and plain-clothed police officer who spotted her tattoo, which Naomi says she has because she is a practising Buddhist.
Naomi was escorted to a nearby police station where she was asked to give a statement.
