Yaounde, Cameroon Africa(Cameroon News) -
Jean-Claude Roger Mbede has been issued a prison sentence for three years for having homosexual preferences.

Amnesty International supporters are relentlessly requesting the lawmakers to unconditionally free Mbede who has been issued a prison sentence for three years under allegations of homosexual practices without any further delay.

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Jean-Claude Roger Mbede was taken into custody in March by the Cameroon police when he was going to see a friend. The arrest was made when Mbede’s friends showed the lawmakers some text messages that he had received from Mbede before the meeting.

Jean-Claude Roger Mbede was arrested after he was suspected to have same sex preferences and has been jailed at the Gendarmerie du Lac detention centre in Yaoundé. He was in jail there for a week before he was found guilty of being a homosexual and attempted homosexuality following which he was sent to Kondengui central prison on 9 March.

On 28 April, Jean-Claude was judged guilty of homosexuality and attempted homosexuality and the court gave him a prison sentence of three years’.

He is presently at Kondengui central prison where he is likely to be a victim of verbal, sexual and physical torture by homophobic prisoners and authorities once they get to know of his sexual orientation.

Homophobia has almost turned into a deadly disease that has affected the Cameroonian society and the detention, prosecutions and trials of homosexual men in courts has become a regular phenomenon.

Amnesty International’s LGBT Campaign Manager Clare Bracey said:

“Locking someone up for their real or perceived sexual orientation is a flagrant breach of basic rights and should not be allowed under any country’s penal code. Because of the state’s intolerance to homosexuality and the general social attitude, homophobia is rife in Cameroon and Amnesty International fears for the safety of Jean-Claude Roger Mbede while he is in prison.

We’re urging the Cameroonian government to repeal this law under the penal code in accordance with its international human rights obligations, and to immediately and unconditionally release Mr Mbede.” Mbede’s lawyers have filed an appeal against his sentence.