A/HRC/13/42* page 121 unhindered access to Office staff. Likewise, access to detention facilities operated by the Republican Guard continued to be denied to judicial authorities and civil society organizations, as well as to Office staff. 458 2. Equatorial Guinea 254. In its report on a mission to Equatorial Guinea in July 2007, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention explained that it was particularly concerned by the practice of secret detention, because it had received information about the kidnapping by Government agents of nationals of Equatorial Guinea, taken from neighbouring countries to Malabo and held in secret detention there. In some cases, the authorities had not acknowledged that the persons in question were held in detention, which meant that, technically, they were considered to be missing.459 255. During its mission, the Working Group interviewed four people - Carmelo Ncogo Mitigo, Jesús Michá Michá, Juan Bestue Santander and Juan María Itutu Méndez - who were detained in secret for 18 months before being transferred to Bata. The Working Group also reported that, during their secret detention, the people had worn handcuffs and leg irons, the marks of which the Working Group was able to observe directly.460 The people were part of a group of five exiles arrested in Libreville on 3 June 2004 by members of the Gabonese security forces for their alleged participation in the incidents that took place on the island of Corisco in 2004. Ten days after they were apprehended, they were handed over to security officials of Equatorial Guinea and transported in secret to Malabo. No formal extradition proceedings were observed. For one and a half years they were held incommunicado and underwent torture. 256. In 2006, the four were accused of rebellion, but had not been put on trial by the time of the Working Group’s mission. Their lawyer explained that he had difficulties meeting with them since he only saw them on the day that they were formally charged. 257. The Working Group also reported that it had been unable to interview four other individuals - Juan Ondo Abaga, Felipe Esono Ntutumu, Florencio Ela Bibang and Antimo Edu Nchama - who, according to a letter they had sent to the Working Group, were kept in a separate wing of the prison at Black Beach. The Working Group added that, according to the complaints received, the four individuals had been transferred to Equatorial Guinea in a military aircraft and imprisoned in Black Beach. They had official refugee status in the countries where they were living (Benin and Nigeria). They were kidnapped and subsequently detained without the benefit of any legal proceedings.461 In 2008, the Working Group added that the four had continued to be 458 Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the situation of human rights and the activities of her Office in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (A/HRC/10/58), paras. 40 and 43. 459 A/HRC/7/4/Add.3, para. 69. 460 Ibid., paras. 71-72. 461 Ibid., paras. 69-70.