The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) has learned that the Cameroonian government has refused to release nine men jailed on charges of homosexuality despite their April 21 acquittal. In a further travesty of justice, the government is forcing the men to stand trial again. The men have been detained in Kondegui Prison in Yaoundé for nearly a year. At their initial trial, no witnesses were called and no proof offered by the prosecution, so Judge Tonye, the magistrate overseeing the case, declared the men innocent of all charges. The men expected to be released from prison quickly but the prosecutor’s office has refused to order their release and has said that the men will be retried.

“You arrest people unfairly, violate their rights for almost a year, and then refuse to release them—this constitutes an abuse of power,” Duga Titanji, the men’s attorney in Cameroon, told IGLHRC. “This development constitutes a major violation of due process. With no new arrest warrant being served, this is now a blatant case of arbitrary detention.”

IGLHRC was alerted to the arrests of the men within days of its occurrence on May 21, 2005 and arranged for Mr. Titanji to take their case. Along with local and international human rights advocates, IGLHRC has repeatedly demanded the unconditional release of the nine men to both Cameroonian and United Nations officials, and provided emergency assistance to help the men survive the harsh conditions of their detention.

Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states that, “No one shall be liable to be tried or punished again for an offence for which he has already been finally convicted or acquitted.

“This is nothing more than double jeopardy. The Cameroonian government has upended the entire judicial process in this case and is showing blatant disregard for legal procedures,” stated Cary Alan Johnson, Senior Coordinator for Africa at IGLHRC. “We will work with Cameroonian activists to confront this brazen abuse in the courts and at the national and international diplomatic levels.”

Background on the case of Yaoundé 11:

On 21 May 2005, gendarmes from the Nlongka Brigade arrested 17 men at a nightclub believed to frequented by gays and lesbians. These arrests were first reported by the local newspaper, Mutations, and were confirmed by the United States Embassy in Cameroon. National television in Cameroon and local Channel 2 broadcasted images of the young men after their arrest. The 11 men who remained in detention were those too poor to find a means to be released or to hire a lawyer. Many have been abandoned by their families due to publicity related to the case.

In July 2005, IGLHRC and Behind the Mask, a South Africa-based LGBT media outlet and human rights organization, launched a letter-writing campaign on behalf of the detainees, but the government failed to release the men.

In December 2005, IGLHRC delivered a letter to the Minister of Justice of Cameroon urging him to release the 11 men detained for the last seven months on suspicion of “sodomy” and to prevent a government-ordered “medical examination” to determine whether the men had engaged in homosexual conduct. Seven other human rights organizations—both American and African—signed the letter to S.E. Monsieur Amadou Ali, entreating the minister to prevent the medical examinations that had been ordered by a government prosecutor.

A trial date was set for March 17, 2006. Shortly before the trial began, two of the men were released, ostensibly due to lack of evidence.

On March 17, 2006, at the opening of the trial, the prosecution seemed ill prepared and had no witnesses to present. Rather than dismissing the case, the judge postponed the trial until April 21, 2006.

On April 21, a trial was convened, but the prosecution again produced no witnesses and no proof of the charges against the nine men. A verdict of not guilty was delivered by Magistrate Tonye.