However, human rights groups have called for the charges to be dropped. Their lawyer, Barrister Alice Nkom, disputes these charges, saying they were arrested because they looked feminine.

“They were arrested because their hair was dressed like that of women. This is a crime of fashion, not homosexuality. I don't know how the prosecutor will bring evidence that they are homosexuals,” she said.

Barrister Nkom said the men were pleading not guilty despite a confession to police that they were homosexuals. They made the confession because they were beaten up and jailed, she said.

“You never have a fair trial in Cameroon concerning homosexuality,” she said. “Sometimes they [the authorities] send a doctor to check your anus. This is humiliation and an act of torture,” she added.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have said the men should be freed from prison, rather than put on trial.

The men looked healthy and calm in court. The mother of one of the accused said she had been stigmatised in her neighbourhood since her son's arrest.

Human Rights Watch spokesperson, Dipika Nath, is quoted as saying Cameroon was sending a "frightening message" that people could be "tortured and jailed just because of the way they look".

Amnesty's Africa programme director, Erwin van der Borght, is also quoted as saying the homosexuality law was draconian and discriminatory and should be scrapped.

"By arresting people purely because of their alleged sexual orientation, the Cameroonian government is flagrantly violating international human rights treaties which it has signed or ratified," he said.

Homosexuality is illegal in Cameroon and carries a jail sentence of up to five years, while homophobia is widespread like in most African countries.

It is worth recalling that in March this year, a Cameroonian man, Jean-Claude Roger Mbede, was jailed for three years for homosexuality.