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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Monika Pronczuk

US deportees to Equatorial Guinea were arrested and beaten by police, lawyers say

Equatorial Guinea Arrests - (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Two men deported by the United States to Equatorial Guinea were arbitrarily arrested after police covered their heads with a bag, beat them and held them at gunpoint in a hotel-turned-detention center, their lawyers and rights groups said on Friday.

Ahmed Soliman, an Egyptian national, and Samson Birhane from Eritrea are among over 40 people who have been deported by the United States to Equatorial Guinea, a small oil-rich state in central Africa. Lawyers said they believed their arbitrary arrests were retaliation for the men raising alarm about the conditions of their detention and the police violence they had endured.

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