V. Other Common Due Process Violations

Beyond torture and ill-treatment, defendants suspected of homosexuality confront a broad spectrum of due process violations. However, rarely did such violations in the cases examined, even when acknowledged by courts, result in prosecutions being discontinued or any other remedy.

Extended Stays in Custody Before Being Charged

Suspects accused of homosexuality routinely spent more time in the custody of security forces before being charged by a court than the 48 hours provided for by law.[121]

For instance, in Kumba, G.M., L.N., E. F. and R.X. (a child of 17 years old) were held in police custody for a full two weeks before being charged. Samuel A. and A.N. (a child of 16 years), arrested by police in Douala, were detained for eight days.  In Yaoundé, gendarmes detained Marc-Henri B. and Bruno E. for at least nine days before being charged and transferred to prison. Roger M. was held for seven days. Esther B. and Martine A., arrested on homosexuality charges in Ambam, were detained at the Ambam Gendarmerie Company in February 2012 for four days. 

Denial of Access to Counsel

Cameroon’s Criminal Procedure Code guarantees the right to a lawyer, but several defendants interviewed who asked for a lawyer at the time of arrest were denied this right.[122] For instance, Samuel A. explained, “They interrogated me and asked how I started that, and who I go out with. I told them I wanted to see a lawyer. They didn’t listen.”[123] Stéphane M., as described in Case Study 3 (Section II), was also denied the right to see a lawyer.

Law enforcement officials often became uncomfortable when defense lawyers came into the picture. Joseph M. heard in late 2011 that the police in Kumba, after arresting four other alleged gays, were looking for him on suspicion of homosexuality.

I got information that police were looking for me…. I talked to a friend who is a lawyer. He said he would come with me. When we entered [the police station] they saw him. They asked if I knew why I was called. I said “No, I don’t know.”

The police officer started using intimidating words, “So you’ve got a lawyer?” The lawyer said, “Is it wrong for the citizen to have a lawyer?” The lawyer and the police had an exchange of words. The lawyer said, “If you have anything, send it to court and we’ll talk there.” We left. The next time I was in Kumba, we went to the office [police station]. We sat there with two police officers. It seems that whatever they planned to say and do, the presence of the lawyer was an obstruction.[124]

Denial of Contact with Family

In addition to being denied the right to counsel, several detainees were also denied contact with their families, which is guaranteed by section 37 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Stéphane Maliédji said police in Douala refused to allow him to call his sister. Jonas K. said that during the week he was in police custody in Yaoundé, he was not permitted to inform his parents.[125]

ADEFHO documented a case in 2012 in which the parents of a minor arrested for homosexuality had no idea of his whereabouts for two months. By the time he was released from prison, they had already conducted mourning rituals.

Biased Law Enforcement and Judicial Officials

In some cases, law enforcement officials’ own prejudices play a role in what they consider “evidence” of a crime. When Franky D. and Jonas K. were charged with homosexuality before a court in Yaoundé, the president of the tribunal asked Franky D. to explain why he was drinking Bailey’s, a liqueur, on the night of his arrest, and asserted that because Bailey’s is a “woman’s drink,” this proved that Franky D. was homosexual.[126] He also accused Franky D. and Jonas K. of “speaking like women.”[127]

The prosecutor in the case against Bruno E. and Marc-Henri B. told judges that by arresting them he had “dismantled a network of homosexuals,” reflecting biased assumptions about gay men.[128]

One person who was prosecuted for homosexuality said that police officers referred to homosexuality as “sorcery” and “an abomination” during the interrogation, reflecting biases that could interfere with their ability to objectively examine the evidence.[129]

Use of Confessions

A number of people arrested on the basis of homosexuality are tortured, as described above, or otherwise intimidated in order to extract confessions. Frequently, the “confessions” extracted from victims do not constitute admission of actual crimes, but rather, consist of simple admissions of homosexuality or vague recollections of previous homosexual acts. The required constitutive elements of a crime—in this case, information such as the identity of the second party, their actual gender, and whether or not the incident took place within the statute of limitations—are missing.

According to the Ministry of Justice, “Confessions shall not only be made voluntarily, but the court shall ascertain veracity of their contents.”[130] But in many cases discussed in this report, confessions were used in court without substantial corroborating evidence, including the case of Roger M.; the case of R.X., the minor arrested in Kumba; the case of Esther B. and Martine A.; and the case of Jonas K. and Franky D., who were ultimately acquitted on appeal.

Corruption

Several individuals wound up being prosecuted for homosexuality because they were unable to pay sizable bribes demanded by gendarmes or police. In one case, several arrested men spent over a week in custody at a gendarmerie brigade in Yaoundé. According to one of them, their family members came to “negotiate” their release with the commandant, bringing a total of 450,000 CFA (about $900). They were about to be released when the captain—the commandant’s supervisor—became aware of the transaction and gave orders not to release the men.[131]

Another man held in the same case, interviewed separately, explained, “The investigators asked us for money, 500,000 CFA ($1000). The commandant of the brigade asked us for this. He said if we didn’t pay we’d be taken to the Parquet.”[132]

Those who paid bribes, such as Joseph P. in Limbe, whose friends paid 70,000 CFA to gendarmes (see Section II, above), were often released.