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Cameroonian editor jailed over publication of gays list


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A Cameroonian court Friday sentenced to four months in jail the editor of a sensationalist magazine that published a list of prominent alleged homosexuals in the country.

Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga, editor of L'Anecdote, was also fined a million CFA francs (1,525 euros,1,835 dollars) by the court in Yaounde after being found guilty of libelling Gregoire Owono, minister in charge of relations with the parliamentary assemblies.

Owona was one of a series of figures from the worlds of politics, religion, sport and the arts identified in January by Cameroonian magazines as practising "deviancies" or homosexual activities.

The allegations created uproar in Cameroon where sexual relations with a person of the same sex can carry a prison term of between six months and five years and a fine of between 20,000 and 200,000 CFA francs.

Owono was awarded a symbolic CFA franc (0.00153 euros) in damages.

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Cameroon-press-gays-justice

AFP 031509 GMT 03 06

COPYRIGHT 2004 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved.

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