ce officers broke into a number of the hotel rooms of five people (...) and grabbed them by the neck and tackled them to the ground and handcuffed them and threatened them at gunpoint. 

The authorities tried to pressure Soliman and Birhane to agree to be returned to their countries, their lawyers said, and tried to take away their phones. Videos of Soliman protesting against the treatment by the authorities and being held at gunpoint by a police officer in the hotel have been published in international media.

Police arrested Soliman and Birhane on Sept. 11, accusing them of breaking a mirror. Officers later brought the men back to the hotel with bags over their heads and beat them in front of other detainees, according to the lawyers.

The lawyers for Soliman and Birhane said they have not been able to reach the two men since the authorities took them to La Luna police station. Both the men had lived in the United States for decades before being deported.

 Amnesty International believes that the police officers targeted them in reprisal for reporting the authorities' violent threats to coerce them to agree to return to their countries of origin,  the rights group said in a statement on Friday.  Since then, the two men have been held in an overcrowded police cell, in inhumane conditions, unable to speak to their lawyer. 

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Immigration lawyers say the Trump administration uses deportations to third countries as a legal loophole to indirectly force asylum seekers back to their countries of origin. Equatorial Guinea is one of at least eight African nations to have entered into such an agreement with the United States.

Equatorial Guinea is one of Africa's richest countries because of its oil resources, but U.S. officials say it is also plagued by corruption and human rights abuses.

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Critical voices are almost nonexistent in the country, where rights groups and the U.S. State Department have accused the government of detaining, torturing and even killing people who speak out.

U.S. companies are among the country's largest foreign investors, and the military receives U.S. funding for training.