A gay rights campaigner in Cameroon has been found dead in
his Yaounde home after being tortured, Human Rights Watch says.
Eric Lembembe’s body was discovered in the capital on Monday
and his body showed he had been extensively tortured, the group said in a
statement on Tuesday.
“Friends of Lembembe found his body on Monday evening.
According to one of his friends his neck was broken and his face, hands and
feet were burned with an iron,” the statement said.
The organisation referred to the incident as “murder” and called
on the authorities to carry out a “thorough” investigation.
They said Lembembe was found after worried friends had been
unable to contact him by phone.
The front door to his house was padlocked on the outside but
they could see his body through a window and called the police, who broke down
the door.
Lembembe, who was executive director of the Cameroonian AIDS
Foundation, was an outspoken advocate of gay rights in a country where
homos*xuality is punishable by up to five years in prison.
He was a “close associate of HRW”, the group added.
Non-governmental organisations have regularly denounced the
arrest and imprisonment of homos*xuals in Cameroon, as well as the threats
received by those who try to defend their rights.
The latest incident comes just weeks after an arson attack
on a charity providing help to homos*xuals with HIV.
In October 2012, Michel Togue, a lawyer known for defending
homos*xuals revealed that he and a fellow lawyer, Alice Nkom, had received
death threats.
His office had also been burgled and legal papers and a
computer stolen
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