Ordeal of British lady with Buddha tattoo: SC awards Rs. 600,000 as compensation

By S.S. Selvanayagam

The Supreme Court yesterday in a landmark judgment awarded a total of Rs. 600,000 as compensation to a British female tourist with a Buddha tattoo who was subjected to a traumatic experience at the airport.

Justice Anil Goonarathne, with Justices Eva Wanasundera and Nalin Perera agreeing with his judgment, awarded petitioner Naomi Michelle Coleman Rs. 500,000 as compensation to  her payable by the State and Rs. 50,000 each from the respondent police officers namely Police Sergeant Upasena and Acting OIC Police Inspector Suraweera of the Katunayake Police Station. The Court also awarded Rs. 200,000 as cost payable by the State.

Court held that the Petitioner’s fundamental rights to freedom from torture, the right to equality and freedom from arbitrary arrest had been infringed.

Court observed that the police misrepresented facts and misled the magistrate into believing the submissions that a deportation order could be made by such a court.

It ruled that the magistrate had no jurisdiction to make an order of deportation and the deportation of foreigners was governed by the Immigration and Emigration Act and that the power to order the removal or deportation of a person from Sri Lanka other than a citizen was vested in the Minister in charge of same.

Coleman, a nurse at the Hawkesbury Lodge, Rehabilitation Mental Health Services, who was 37 at the time of the incident in 2014, cited the Attorney General and Police Sergeant Upasena, Acting OIC IP Suraweera of the Katunayake Police Station as well as Negombo Prison OIC, IGP and Controller General of Immigration and Emigration Chulananda De Silva as respondents and petitioned the court to award her Rs. 10 million as compensation.

Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jayasuriya, with Deputy Solicitor General Parintha Ranasinghe and Senior State Counsel Warunika Hettige, appeared for the Attorney General.

Counsel J.C. Weliamuna PC with Pulasthi Hewamanna and Tishya Weragoda, instructed by Vishwa De Livera Tennakoon, appeared for Coleman.

Coleman, who claims to be a devout Buddhist who attends meditation retreats in Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia and India, in her petition stated that as an apt tribute to and personal expression of her devotion to Buddhist teachings she displayed a tattoo on her upper right arm of Buddha seated on a lotus flower.

She said she arrived at the Bandaranaike International Airport and when she was at the exit gate attempting to locate the luggage counter, she was approached by a taxi cab driver identified as Kelum Chaminda and a bystander who said that the tattoo might be objectionable in Sri Lanka. A Civil Defence Force member was also present.

They took her to a Katunayake police station where the Acting OIC confiscated her passport but no statement was recorded by them and then she was produced before the court which refused to disclose the charge against her or the offence she had committed.

She complained she was not afforded an opportunity to communicate with the British High Commission, nor was she informed whether the High Commission was informed of her arrest.

She was introduced to an Attorney by a prison guard. She was not afforded an opportunity to give instructions to the attorney and was required to pay a fee of Rs. 5,000, she stated.

She lamented that while in court the prison guard who was in charge of the accused made several lewd, obscene and disparaging remarks of a sexually explicit nature to her whilst she was being detained in the courtroom.

She bemoaned that the said prison guard made remarks to the effect that he wanted to “jiggy, jiggy” with her and also made several obscene gestures which included sticking his tongue out her on several occasions together with other lewd remarks.

She complained that her case was called at around 2.30 p.m., however, she was unable to understand the proceedings as they were not translated into English and she was not permitted to speak. 

Upon the conclusion of her case, her attorney informed her that she would be deported regardless of her entreaties to be permitted to leave to the Maldives. She revealed that she was then detained at a deportation centre.

She said she was then made aware that her case did not disclose under what provision of the law she was arrested, charged, convicted, detained and deported.

 She complained that a woman prison officer asked her to give her Rs. 10,000 and attempted to take her mobile phone.

She said that she was subjected to a full body search and frisked by a female officer and slept next to roughly 60 female inmates.

Her passport was again confiscated by an officer at the Immigration Office and after several requests, she was permitted to speak with the High Commission and thereafter she was transported to the Mirihana Immigration Detention Camp and detained for two nights.