This is a breaking story and will be updated.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer may have lied to a judge in a court filing claiming a scheduled flight to Equatorial Guinea had been canceled. Flight data shows the ICE-chartered aircraft landing on the island city of Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Friday afternoon.
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The agent made the claim in a required on Thursday in the case of Ahmed Soliman, a 31-year-old Egyptian national who has been imprisoned in the authoritarian country since ICE expelled him there in April.
Earlier this month, Arizona District Court Judge John C. Hinderaker ruled Soliman’s due process rights had been violated and ordered the government to facilitate his return. In recent days, Soliman’s attorneys have filed several motions claiming the government was not complying with the order.
In a Wednesday motion, they cited a story from the Prospect, which said documents the Prospect had obtained showed an Eastern Airlines plane chartered by ICE was scheduled to leave Alexandria, Louisiana, the next day, with planned stops in Senegal, Equatorial Guinea, Burundi, and the Central African Republic. The documents also showed the purpose of the flight to Equatorial Guinea was to expel 25 more third-country nationals there, with no stated plan to bring Soliman on board.
But the next day, ICE agent Andrea Chiriboga Villacis told the judge the flight to Equatorial Guinea had been canceled: “On October 22, 2026, ERO headquarters advised that the anticipated third-country removal mission to Equatorial Guinea had been cancelled. Therefore, that mission is not available as a means to transport Petitioner to the United States.”
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That does not appear to have been true. Flight data shows the Boeing 767 aircraft landed in Malabo at 4:40 p.m. local time, 11:40 a.m. Eastern time.
When told about the aircraft, Soliman’s attorneys said they would be filing an emergency motion as soon as possible. Department of Justice attorneys also appear to be working on asking an appeals court to stay the judge’s orders, they said.
At least 63 third-country nationals have been sent to Equatorial Guinea since last November via at least six ICE-chartered flights, where they have reported being beaten, threatened, held at gunpoint, and deprived of food, water, hygiene products, and medical care. Soliman was hospitalized with a serious illness over the weekend.
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