Cameroonian Women Face Trial on Homosexuality Charges

[William769]

Two women charged with homosexuality in the west central African nation of Cameroon are scheduled to go on trial Thursday, according to reports from advocacy groups.

All Out, a grassroots, international LGBT rights group, reports that the two women, referred to on the organization’s website only by their first names, Esther and Pascaline, were arrested last month in the small town of Ambam in Cameroon’s southern region. According to All Out, the women were turned in by an unidentified man who “denounced” the pair for their sexual orientation and were castigated by local residents as “witches [who] deserve death.”

The upcoming trial comes a week after a court decision to delay the appeal hearing of Jean-Claude Roger Mbede, a Cameroonian man who was sentenced to three years in prison for sending “gay text messages” and has been reportedly sexually assaulted during his imprisonment.

Both cases are represented by Alice Nkom (pictured), one of the few attorneys working on behalf of gays in a country where charges of same-sex relationships can carry a penalty of up to five years. Human rights groups including Amnesty International have called on the Cameroonian government to drop all laws criminalizing homosexuality. Meanwhile, other African countries including Liberia and Nigeria have moved in recent months to strengthen, not weaken, such laws.

http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2012/03/14/Cameroonian_Women_Face_Trial_on_Homosexuality_Charges/

[Confusious]

1. It's still the 1600's in some parts of the world

And some religions would like to keep it that way.

Kind of like a disease, as long as it has a foothold somewhere, it can make a comeback. i.e. polio, i.e. neolithic thinking.