An Egyptian man deported from the US to Equatorial Guinea who criticized the conduct \u200bof security forces there has been held for a week at a gendarmerie station, one of \u200chis lawyers said.<\/p>\n
Ahmed Soliman\u00a0was arrested\u00a0on Friday last week and has not been able to see his attorneys, the lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.<\/p>\n
The spokesman for the central African nation’s government and its embassy in Washington did not respond to requests \u200bfor comment.<\/p>\n
VIDEO SHOWS ALTERCATION IN HOTEL<\/strong><\/p>\n Earlier this month, Soliman said police officers\u00a0pulled guns\u00a0on him and other \u200bmigrants during an altercation at a hotel in Malabo, the former capital, where he and \u2060other migrants deported by the US have been held.<\/p>\n Video of the incident and news of Soliman’s subsequent arrest spurred \u200bfresh criticism from rights groups of the so-called third-country deportation deals that the Trump administration has struck with several African \u200bcountries.<\/p>\n The deals enable Washington to deport migrants who cannot legally be sent to their home countries because they obtained protection from US immigration judges.<\/p>\n Washington has defended the third-country deals as lawful and said deportations are carried out in accordance with US immigration law.<\/p>\n Soliman was \u200bin custody at La Luna gendarmerie station in Malabo, his lawyer said.<\/p>\n The facility has been used in the past \u200bto hold human rights activists, according to rights groups including Amnesty International.<\/p>\n DETAINEES ACCUSED OF BREAKING MIRROR, AMNESTY SAYS<\/strong><\/p>\n Soliman had been accused of \u200cbreaking a \u2060mirror in an elevator in the hotel, though that was a pretext for his arrest, the lawyer said.<\/p>\n “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.<\/p>\n Amnesty International said in a statement on Friday that Soliman was being held \u200bwith another deportee, Samson Birhane, \u200band that they were both \u2060accused of breaking the mirror.<\/p>\n “Police officers covered the two men\u2019s heads with a bag and beat them in their heads, backs and ribs,” Amnesty said, describing how they were \u200ballegedly taken into custody.<\/p>\n “The authorities must immediately release them, inform them of any charges \u200bagainst them and \u2060allow them unimpeded access to counsel.”<\/p>\n Equatorial Guinea’s government spokesman and its US embassy have not released any statements on Soliman’s case.<\/p>\n In a statement on Wednesday, US Representative Adelita Grijalva, a Democrat from Arizona, where Soliman has spent much of his life, criticized the \u2060third-country \u200bdeportations.<\/p>\n “Our country is responsible for sending people out this way, period,” she \u200btold Reuters.<\/p>\n “And so we should make sure that where they’re going is somewhere safe. Just because a country accepts somebody does not mean that \u200bthat’s a good placement.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An Egyptian man deported from the US to Equatorial Guinea who criticized the conduct \u200bof security forces there has been held for a week at a gendarmerie station, one of \u200chis lawyers said. Ahmed Soliman\u00a0was arrested\u00a0on Friday last week and has not been able to see his attorneys, the lawyer, who spoke on condition of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":22051,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":4,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,2362,2377],"tags":[442,1228,385],"class_list":["post-22050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-central-africa","category-featured","category-migration","tag-egypt","tag-equatorial-guinea","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22050"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22052,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22050\/revisions\/22052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}