Colombo: Sri Lanka's Olympic medalist Susantika Jayasinghe has publicly accused a minister of sexual harassment.
The star athlete, who became the second Sri Lankan to win a medal in the Olympics, made the accusation while answering questions at apress conference in Sydney on Thursday. The Sri Lankan paperscarried the story with banner headlines on Sunday.
In a startling revelation, the sprint queen told the international media that the incident happened, immediately after she won the world championship in 1997.
''The minister (identifying him)....the big guy...he wants sex with me. I told him I have a husband. I refused. We had a big fight.''
She made this revelation while answering a question posed by the news conference moderator, about what it meant to be the second medalist in the history of Sri Lankan sports. The moderator asked ''your country must be proud of you?''
Susantika replied in a whisper, ''I can't explain. You would not understand. They gave me trouble. I give them bronze medal. It will make them sad.''
She had leveled the same charge against the cabinet minister a year ago before leaving for the United States last year, the name of the minister has not been published by the media.
UNI
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