Lawyers for two Guinea opposition leaders who disappeared after they were reportedly seized by security forces wrote Thursday to the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor over fears for their lives.
Oumar Sylla, better known as Fonike Mengue, and Mamadou Billo Bah -- two leaders of a citizens' collective calling for a return to civilian rule -- were arrested on July 9, according to their families and movement.
On Wednesday, the Guinean public prosecutor's office released a statement acknowledging "persistent reports of kidnappings" -- including those of Sylla and Bah -- but said the pair were not being held in any jail.
In a letter sent Thursday to ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan, Paris-based international lawyers William Bourdon and Vincent Brengarth, said this statement "chilled the blood" and raised fears of an illegal detention.
The lawyers demanded an investigation and called for their clients "or their remains" be released to their relatives.
Sylla and Bah's pro-democracy movement, the National Front for the Defence of the Constitution (FNDC), described the pair's arrests as a "kidnapping".
The movement said the two men had been arrested by security forces and soldiers from elite units, before allegedly being taken to the military police's judicial investigations department and later the island of Kassa.
The FNDC civil society collective was at the forefront of protests against former president Alpha Conde, who was toppled in a military coup in 2021.
The group is one of Guinea's last opposition voices trying to mobilise support for a return to civilian rule in the poor West African country, haunted by a turbulent political history.
Authorities dissolved the movement in 2022 after banning all demonstrations.
