The two engineers were arrested on what they say are trumped-up drug charges days after assets of Equatorial Guinea's vice-president were seized in South Africa.

The families of Frik Potgieter (54) and Peter Huxham (55), two South African engineers who say they have been unlawfully held as state hostages in Equatorial Guinea since 9 February 2023, have launched an online petition, website and social media campaign to share their story and demand their urgent release.

"Frik and Peter are caught in the political crossfire between South Africa and Equatorial Guinea," said Shaun Murphy, a spokesperson for the Potgieter family. They were working in that country on Africa's west coast for their employer, a global oil and gas company, when they were arrested on what they insist were fabricated drug charges.

That was just two days after a South African court seized a luxury superyacht belonging to Equatorial Guinea's Vice-President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue (known as Teddy). Earlier, the courts had seized Obiang's two luxury Cape Town villas.

These assets were seized to execute a court ruling in South Africa on a separate matter, unrelated to the two engineers. Even though the superyacht has been released, the villas remain impounded in South Africa, and Potgieter and Huxham remain in prison in Equatorial Guinea.

Murphy said, "There is no doubt that they are innocent, and no doubt...