Mildred Loic and Moute Rolland
were arrested for wearing women’s clothes in the country’s largest city, Douala, on 8
February. Police are said to have made the arrests while the pair were eating
in a restaurant.
The women were
denied bail on Wednesday (24 March) after a judge adjourned their case and sent
them back to jail, their lawyer Richard Tamfu said.
Loic had built
an online reputation as a cosmetician, becoming a local social media
celebrity known
as Shakiro with more than 100,000 Facebook followers.
She and
Rolland are also facing charges of public indecency and not carrying
identification, according to Reuters. They have pled not guilty.
Their arrests
come amid a spike in LGBT+
crackdowns by Cameroonian authorities over the last year, leading to
dozens of arrests.
“We have
observed a resurgence in homophobic attacks this year,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi,
researcher at Human Rights Watch.
“It is common for people to be abused in detention.”
Homosexuality
is illegal in Cameroon and punishable by up to five years in prison. The LGBT+
advocacy group CAMFAIDS reports that between 2010 and 2014, at least 50 people
were convicted for crimes ranging from cross-dressing to a man texting “I love
you” to another man.
Vigilante
executions, beatings and torture are also tolerated, according to GLAAD.
Alice Nkom, a
prominent LGBT+ rights lawyer who is representing the trans women, said last
month she was “confident” they would be acquitted as there was no actual
evidence of a crime.
SOURCE: PINK NEWS
Cameroon needs to change! 😏 Get with the times, people.
ReplyDeleteBizarre. One would think the world was past this sort of thing... evolve already.
ReplyDelete