An Egyptian man deported from the United States to Equatorial Guinea has been held incommunicado for a week after publicly criticizing the conduct of security forces in the country, according to one of his lawyers.
Ahmed Soliman was detained on Sept. 11 and has since been held at La Luna gendarmerie station in Malabo without access to his legal team, the lawyer told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Equatorial Guinea’s government spokesman and its embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.
Soliman is among migrants sent by the United States to Equatorial Guinea under third-country deportation arrangements introduced by the Trump administration.
The agreements allow Washington to remove migrants who cannot legally be returned to their countries of origin because they have received protection from US immigration courts.
The US government has defended the policy, saying the deportations are lawful and comply with American immigration rules.
Earlier this month, Soliman said police officers drew firearms on him and other deportees during an altercation at a hotel in Malabo where the group had been staying.
Video footage of the confrontation, followed by Soliman’s detention, prompted renewed criticism from human rights organisations over Washington’s third-country deportation policy.
According to Soliman’s lawyer, authorities accused him of damaging a mirror inside a hotel elevator. The lawyer said the allegation was being used as a pretext and argued that his detention was retaliation for speaking publicly about the treatment of deportees and for the release of footage showing armed security personnel confronting them.
Amnesty International said on Friday that Soliman was being detained alongside another deportee, Samson Birhane, and that both men had been accused of breaking the mirror.
The rights group alleged that police covered the men’s heads with bags and beat them on the head, back and ribs as they were taken into custody.
Amnesty called for their immediate release or for authorities to formally disclose any charges against them and provide unrestricted access to lawyers.
Rights groups have previously said La Luna gendarmerie station has been used to detain activists and government critics.
The case has also drawn criticism in the United States.
US Representative Adelita Grijalva, a Democrat from Arizona, where Soliman has spent much of his life, said Washington retained responsibility for ensuring people deported under third-country arrangements were sent to safe locations.
She said a country’s willingness to accept a deportee did not necessarily mean it was an appropriate or safe destination.
Equatorial Guinea has not publicly commented on the allegations surrounding Soliman’s detention.
