Egyptian deported by US to Equatorial Guinea held incommunicado for a week, lawyer says

Sept 18 - An Egyptian man deported from the US to Equatorial Guinea who criticized the conduct of security forces there has been held for a week at a gendarmerie station, one of his lawyers said.

Ahmed Soliman was arrested on Friday last week and has not been able to see his attorneys, the lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.

The spokesman for the central African nation's government and its embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.

Earlier this month, Soliman said police officers pulled guns on him and other migrants during an altercation at a hotel in Malabo, the former capital, where he and other migrants deported by the US have been held.

Video of the incident and news of Soliman's subsequent arrest spurred fresh criticism from rights groups of the so-called third-country deportation deals that the Trump administration has struck with several African countries.

The deals enable Washington to deport migrants who cannot legally be sent to their home countries because they obtained protection from US immigration judges.

Washington has defended the third-country deals as lawful and said deportations are carried out in accordance with US immigration law.

Soliman was in custody at La Luna gendarmerie station in Malabo, his lawyer said.

The facility has been used in the past to hold human rights activists, according to rights groups including Amnesty International.

Soliman had been accused of breaking a mirror in an elevator in the hotel, though that was a pretext for his arrest, the lawyer said.

"We are certain that it was a retaliation for Ahmed speaking out and the videos leaked," said the lawyer, referring to footage of security forces pulling guns on deportees.

Amnesty International said in a statement on Friday that Soliman was being held with another deportee, Samson Birhane, and that they were both accused of breaking the mirror.

"Police officers covered the two men’s heads with a bag and beat them in their heads, backs and ribs," Amnesty said, describing how they were allegedly taken into custody.

"The authorities must immediately release them, inform them of any charges against them and allow them unimpeded access to counsel."

Equatorial Guinea's government spokesman and its US embassy have not released any statements on Soliman's case.

In a statement on Wednesday, US Representative Adelita Grijalva, a Democrat from Arizona, where Soliman has spent much of his life, criticized the third-country deportations.

"Our country is responsible for sending people out this way, period," she told Reuters.

"And so we should make sure that where they're going is somewhere safe. Just because a country accepts somebody does not mean that that's a good placement." REUTERS