Two men jailed for ‘looking gay’ and for drinking Bailey’s Irish Cream acquitted

Image: Jemimus

Two men who were sentenced to five years in prison for ‘looking gay’ and ordering Baileys Irish Cream in were acquitted in Cameroon this week.

Jonas Kumie and Franky Djome spent more than a year in jail after being arrested in a car outside a nightclub in the capital Yaounde, in July 2011.

'The judge who originally sentenced them had stated that the way they dressed, the way they spoke, and the fact that they drank Bailey's Irish Cream proved they were gay,' their lawyer, Alice N'Kom, told global gay rights group All Out, which launched a petition demanding the men's release.

- CNN International

'The acquittal of two Cameroonian men jailed for looking gay because they wore women's clothes exposes the systematic discrimination against perceived homosexuals in the country' Amnesty International said in a statement released on Tuesday.

According to a statement by Kumie and Djome to Amnesty, the pair were subjected 'violence and prejudice from prison authorities and other inmates while in jail.'

Human Rights groups are applauding the ruling, but are calling on the country to release others who have been imprisoned under anti-gay laws.