Sexual harassment of foreigners: two remanded | Sunday Observer

Sexual harassment of foreigners: two remanded

13 May, 2018

The two suspects who had been taken into custody for charges on attempted sexual harassment of three US Navy personnel from the hospital ship USNS Mercy, were remanded till May 22, when they will be produced before the court, the Police said on Friday.

The two suspects, an employee of a hotel in Alas Garden, Uppuveli and of a Spa in the same area were produced before the Trincomalee Magistrate on May 8 (Tuesday) and 9 (Wednesday) respectively. While the hotel employee is a resident of Mullaitivu the spa employee is from Ampara. Both were working in the Alles Garden in Uppuveli, Trincomalee.

PPM is the largest annual multilateral humanitarian assistance and disaster relief preparedness mission conducted in the Indo-Pacific region. The mission was in Sri Lanka for the 2nd consecutive year, sharing knowledge and best practices with military and civilian health personnel, civil engineers and disaster relief experts. Further, they supported the community in Trincomalee during the mission, performing 8-10 surgeries daily at the USNS Mercy, holding mobile health clinics and completing three civil engineering projects in the district. The mission band and the sports teams performed at various schools and public grounds as a gesture of goodwill and friendship.

Meanwhile, the Uppuveli Police arrested a resident of Kurunegala charged on attempted sexual assault of a British national at another hotel in Alas Gardens, Uppuveli. The three incidents at the eastern coast follow two occurrences in the southern coast, where tourists underwent physical and sexual harassment last month. While a group of Dutch tourists who opposed being subject to sexual harassment were physically assaulted at the Mirissa beach early April; two male Israeli tourists who had helped a female tourist involved in an inequitable argument with a local youth were beaten up by a group of locals at the Midigama beach in Weligama two weeks later. Sexual harassment of female tourists, travelling alone started this year with the rape of a Swiss national at knife-point in Nuwara Eliya in January. 

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