Reports say a man has been sentenced to nine years in jail for breaking Cameroon’s laws against homosexuality – even though the country’s penal code stipulates a maximum sentence of five years for those found guilty of same-sex sexual acts.
LGBT campaign blog Erasing 76 Crimes, which charts 76 countries with anti-gay laws, said last Wednesday a 35-year-old man named Cornelius Fonya in the coastal city of Limbe was sentenced to nine years imprisonment.
Erasing 76 quotes LGBT activists from CAMEF, the Cameroon Empowerment Association for Outreach Programmes in Limbe, as saying that the defendant had been accused of same-sex relations with a boy of 14 – but that it was later proven that the youth was 19-years-old, and legally an adult.
CAMEF say the judge presiding over the case had been accused of letting the original charge stand, and that the younger man and his family, who reportedly made the accusation, never appeared in court and never testified against Mr Fonya.
It’s claimed Mr Fonya has been held in custody since 29 October 2012, after being seized by a mob and hauled to a police station.
Even though he posted bail, CAMEF said the judge refused.
CAMEF said: “The legal system in Cameroon has proven once more the homophobic context in which we are currently living in, where it is enough for one to get imprisoned for his or her perceived or actual sexual preferences.
“We need to do something so as to put an end to this continuous human rights violation suffered by members of the LGBT community here in Cameroon.”
It added: “CAMEF has been working hand in hand with barrister Walter Atoh, who is actually on this case so together we can put an end to this present situation. We hope together with your support, we can do something for Cornelius.”
In July, prominent Cameroonian gay rights and HIV campaigner Eric Ohena Lembembe was brutally murdered in his home, just days after speaking out against increasing violence against the country’s LGBT community.
by Scott Roberts
Source – PinkNews
