According to
the New York Times, the individuals received prison time for “attempted homosexuality” and public indecency. Human rights groups say their arrests are another example of discrimination against gay and transgender people in the West African nation.
Shakiro, who is being identified as
Loïc Njeukam, and Patricia, referred to as
Roland Mouthe, were dining in Cameroon’s economic capital of Douala at a restaurant when they were arrested back on Feb. 8, according to police documents.
The police claimed to have received complaints of the two kissing, but their lawyer claims that is not true.
They waited in prison for two months before they were sentenced and were found guilty on Tuesday of also not providing proof of identity. Shakiro, 23, and Patricia, 27, who go by first names, received the maximum fine of 200,000 CFA francs, or $370.
Au Cameroun, la condamnation de deux transgenres au cœur d une controverse
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Cameroun Deux femmes transgenres condamnées à cinq ans de prison
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Cameroon Sentences Transgender Women to 5 Years in Prison
Human rights groups and lawyers said the sentences are the latest examples of a crackdown on homosexual and transgender people in Cameroon.
Shakiro, in a photo provided by her mother.Credit.Joséphine Marie Njeukam
May 13, 2021, 2:29 p.m. ET
Two transgender women were sentenced to five years in prison in Cameroon this week after they were found guilty of “attempted homosexuality” and public indecency, the latest example of an increasing crackdown on gay and transgender people in the West African nation, human rights groups say.
Shakiro, identified in police documents as Loïc Njeukam, and Patricia, referred to as Roland Mouthe, both identify as transgender and were arrested in February as they were having dinner at a restaurant in Douala, Cameroon’s economic capital. On Tuesday, they were also found guilty of failing to show proof of identity and given the maximum fine of 200,000 CFA francs, or $370.
Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail
On April 16, 1963, an incarcerated Martin Luther King, Jr. (arrested for demonstrating in defiance of a court order) wrote his
Letter from Birmingham Jail in response to a published statement by eight fellow clergymen from Alabama.
Part of the letter read: We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we stiff creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dark of segregation to say, Wait. But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering