Portrait
Born
1979
Died
10 January 2014Ngoumou, Cameroon
Prisoner of conscienceCameroon

Roger Jean-Claude Mbede

A single text message to a man sent him to prison in Cameroon – Amnesty International named him a prisoner of conscience. He died at 34.

Roger Jean-Claude Mbede came from Ngoumou, a village near Cameroon’s capital Yaoundé. In March 2011 he sent a text message to a man, reportedly saying “I’m very much in love with you”. The message reached the authorities, and agents of the security service arrested him. In Cameroon, sex between people of the same sex can be punished with up to five years in prison.

After a week in custody he was charged with “homosexuality and attempted homosexuality”. In April 2011 a court found him guilty and sentenced him to three years in prison. For the court, the text message was proof enough. Human Rights Watch called the verdict a gross violation of his rights, and Amnesty International named him a prisoner of conscience; people around the world signed petitions for his release. His lawyer was Alice Nkom, one of Africa’s best-known defenders of queer people.

Mbede spent sixteen months in Kondengui central prison in Yaoundé, where, according to his lawyer, he suffered from malnutrition and abuse and was diagnosed with a hernia. In July 2012 he was provisionally released for treatment. But he was not free: his name was now known throughout the country, and he lived largely in hiding while his appeal remained pending.

He was seriously ill and had no money for medical care. On 10 January 2014 he died in his home village, aged 34. His case became a symbol of the persecution of queer people in Cameroon. The law under which he was convicted remains in force.

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