BIKINI ARREST BRIT’S TRAUMA
THE British woman who was arrested for wearing a bikini in the Maldives says the police who dragged her off the street also beat her up, groped her and left her fearing for her life.
Footage of Cecilia Jastrzembska being manhandled by cops went viral last week.
But the traumatised 26-year-old claimed things got much worse after the 30-second clip ended – and she was slapped across the face, kicked in the stomach and later subjected to humiliating body searches.
Speaking about her arrest for the first time, she said: “I was absolutely hysterical. Fists were being waved in my face.
“I wondered if they were going to lock me up. It’s the kind of situation where, as a woman, you could imagine something much worse happening.
“I was already injured and hyperventilating when they started to grope me. I was terrified. I thought my life was at risk.
“I was humiliated and degraded.” Bikinis are only allowed to be worn on designated beaches on many of the islands that make up the Maldives, which lie in the northern Indian Ocean, and are subject to strict Muslim Sharia law.
But Cecilia, who works as a Westminster advisor, said she was unaware of that when she went to Maafushi for a scuba-diving holiday with her friend Lucas Ramos, 31.
BOAT
She said: “I loved the idea of diving in the Maldives because it looked like paradise. There were people wearing bikinis everywhere we went. I had no idea they were illegal on some parts of local islands.”
Cecilia – who once appeared on TV’s First Dates – had only just arrived with Lucas on Maafushi, on a boat from neighbouring island Adaaran, when they realised they were being followed by a group of men. At first they had no idea they were plainclothes cops.
Cecilia said: “A few men started following us and shouting at us. I didn’t know what they wanted or what they were talking about.
“Then one said, ‘We’re the police’. I asked them to show me some ID and they said, ‘No’.”
In the online footage, Cecilia is heard shouting, “You’re sexually assaulting me” as three men grapple with her and another tries to cover her with a towel.
But she said: “The 30-second clip was the tip of the iceberg. The altercation actually lasted 10 minutes before we were bundled into a car.
“If they had said, ‘Can you please cover up?’ that would have been totally fine. I have the utmost respect for Islamic customs.
“But I think they just wanted to humiliate and degrade me. They separated us and started kicking and
Two men wanted to search me. That was the excuse... it was awful. CECILIA JASTRZEMBSKA ON ORDEAL AT POLICE STATION