Nurse deported from Sri Lanka 'over Buddha tattoo' wins compensation

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A British woman has won nearly £4,000 in compensation from a Sri Lankan court after being wrongly deported for having a Buddha tattoo on her arm.

Naomi Coleman, a mental health nurse from Coventry, made headlines in 2014 when she was detained for four days.

In a ruling the Supreme Court declared she was entitled to compensation and also ordered police involved in her arrest to pay her £246 each, the government's information department said.

Buddhism is accorded the "foremost place" in Sri Lanka's constitution and about 70 per cent of the island'€™s 21 million people are Buddhist. But there is no law banning Buddha tattoos.

Ms Coleman was deported "contrary to the law governing immigration and emigration", the government said. She was not present in court.

One guard had "made several lewd, obscene and disparaging remarks of a sexually-explicit nature" towards her, the BBC reported.

Ms Coleman told the broadcaster: "Finally the court has actually seen it that I didn't do anything wrong."

She would "probably not" return to Sri Lanka, she added.

A lower court had decided to deport Ms Coleman partly because she could have been "€œvulnerable"€ if allowed to stay as some Sri Lankans could have been offended by the tattoo, officials said.

In 2013, Sri Lanka, a former British colony, denied entry to a British man because of his Buddha tattoo.

Additional reporting by agencies