VII. Threats to Defense Lawyers

As this report demonstrates, access to justice is elusive for many people charged with homosexuality. Recent threats against defense lawyers who have represented clients in homosexuality cases pose a new menace to the right to representation. These lawyers have received occasional, one-off threats in the past, but the systematic nature of the harassment in the last several months, combined with state inaction, raises serious concerns about the Cameroonian government’s commitment to ensuring the right to defense.

Beginning on October 18, 2012, Alice Nkom and Michel Togué received a series of anonymous threats by cell phone and email related to their work on several high-profile homosexuality cases. One text message to Togué threated his school-age children and warned him to stop defending persons accused of homosexuality. A subsequent email message to Togué warned, “In this country there is no place for faggots and their defenders,” and a third message threatened that if  he did not stop “defending your faggot ideas,” he would risk being “at the bedside of one of your dying children.”  The sender attached photos to one of those messages of Togué’s children leaving their school building. [139]

An email message to Nkom stated, “If you don’t stop, you’ll see” and warned her, “This will be bloody;” it also included threats to Nkom’s children. Another message, threatening her clients, warned “It only remains [to find] their houses… the neighborhoods are already in our hands.” [140]

Togué filed a complaint with the Yaoundé police, and Nkom filed a complaint with the prosecutors of the republic in Yaoundé and Douala. However, while the threats subsided for several days, they increased in intensity in the lead-up to an appeals hearing for Roger M. on November 19. Togué’s wife also received phone calls threatening violence. At time of writing, the Cameroonian authorities had taken no action to publicly denounce the threats or to ensure protection for Togué and Nkom. The lack of response to the complaints raised concerns about Cameroon’s commitment to ensuring access to due process for all citizens.