Yaounde – A prominent Cameroonian journalist and a person close to him will appear in court on “pimping” charges brought by a woman who appeared in a sex tape in a high-profile case that has transfixed the country.
A lawyer for the plaintiff and a member of the public prosecutor’s office said that Radio Sport Info director Martin Camus Mimb and Wilfrid Eteki, a traditional chief and friend of Mimb’s, will appear in court on July 22.
In June, images surfaced on social media of a woman named Malicka having sex in Mimb’s office in Cameroon’s economic hub of Douala.
Mimb initially said that the pair had sex in his office while he was away.
He later expressed regret for an “unfortunate situation” and in a letter to Malicka begged her forgiveness “for the damage to your dignity and honour”.
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Malicka’s lawyer Dominique Fousse said she had been “very hurt by the fact that her image has been spread across the world”.
“Her image is completely ruined,” he said, adding that her family was finding counselling for her.
Another attorney for the plaintiff Olivier Moteng told AFP that Mimb and Eteki are being accused of “pimping, obscene publications, defamation and cyber-criminality”.
Despite his request for forgiveness, Mimb has not admitted to participating in the event or to the publication of the images.
Henri Kouokam a lawyer for Mimb only told AFP, “We intend to present our arguments and defences in court.”
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Some political figures had voiced support for the journalist, including a leading minister who later deleted his comments from social media.
Others have seized on the incident to shed light on widespread sexual harassment and violence in Cameroon.
Marie-Therese Abena Ondoua, the minister for promoting women and the family, said the video showed “abominable and unhealthy acts which turn the woman (Malicka) into an object – a sexual object with no value”.
The UN’s Population Fund estimated in January 2016 that more than a third of women in Cameroon had suffered rape or a sexual attack at some point in their life.
Cameroon’s Human Rights Commission strongly condemned the video, hitting out at “indecent, shocking or violent images” that were placed on social media and “harm human dignity”.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Getty Images
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