A British tourist has been arrested and sentenced to deportation in Sri Lanka after authorities spotted a Buddha tattoo on her right arm.
Naomi Michelle Coleman, 37, was arrested at Bandaranaike International Airport in the capital Colombo on Monday after arriving from India.
A police spokesman said she was arrested for ‘hurting others’ religious feelings’.
Shortly after her arrest, a magistrate ordered for her to be deported and she is currently being held at an immigration detention centre.
The Sri Lankan authorities take any perceived insult of Buddhism very seriously, and this isn’t the first incident of its kind.
Last year Anthony Ratcliffe from Nottingham was denied entry to the country due to his Buddha tattoo, and on a previous occasion three French tourists were give suspended prison sentences for kissing a Buddha statue.
A spokeswoman from the British High Commission in Colombo said: ‘We are aware of the detention of a British national in Sri Lanka on April 21. We are providing consular assistance.’
Source: Metro UK
Image Courtesy: Metro UK
http://metro.co.uk/2014/04/22/british-woman-arrested-in-sri-lanka-for-having-buddha-tattoo-4705463/
