On 11 September, the Equatorial Guinea authorities unlawfully arrested Ahmed Soliman and Samson Birhane, accusing them of “breaking a mirror” at a hotel in Malabo, where the two had been arbitrarily held since they were unlawfully removed by the US to Equatorial Guinea earlier this year. Police officers covered the two men’s heads with a bag and beat them in their heads, backs and ribs. Amnesty International believes that police officers targeted them in reprisal for reporting the authorities’ violent threats to coerce them to agree to return to their countries of origin. Since then, the two men have been held in an overcrowded police cell, in inhumane conditions, unable to speak to their lawyer. The authorities must immediately release them, inform them of any charges against them and allow them unimpeded access to counsel.
