Cameroon Jails Men Over Gay Sex

Three men in Cameroon have been sentenced to five years in prison for homosexual acts, which are illegal in the central African nation.

Two of the accused were in court in the capital, Yaounde, but a third man was sentenced in absentia as he had jumped bail.

Police said the men were arrested for having oral sex in a car.

“It’s a shocking and unacceptable decision,” Cameroonian lawyer and gay rights defender Alice Nkom told AFP.

“It is not worthy of a country that speaks of human rights,” she said.

The BBC’s Randy Joe Sa’ah in Yaounde says homophobia is widespread in Cameroon, as in most African countries.

He says as well as the five-year jail term - the maximum sentence for homosexual acts in Cameroon - the men were each fined 200,000 CFA francs (about $400, £260).

Their lawyer Michel Togue said it was a bad ruling and he accused the judge of peppering the hearing with homophobic innuendos, AFP news agency reports.

The two men who were in court were denied bail in August. The third defendant was granted bail after their arrest in July and never appeared in court for the trial.

Ms Nkom, who runs Cameroon’s Association for the Defence of Homosexuals, told the BBC in August that there was no evidence against the men and they had been arrested because they looked feminine and their hair was “dressed like women”.

“This is a crime of fashion, not homosexuality,” she had said.

Amnesty International has said Cameroon’s homosexuality law is draconian and discriminatory and should be scrapped.

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15871386