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5:49 a.m.

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has denied allegations that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was unlawfully deported from the USA, was tortured in a Salvadoran prison. In a post on X on Thursday, Bukele wrote that Abrego Garcia “was not tortured, nor did he lose weight”. In the post, Bukele included pictures and a video of Abrego Garcia in a prison cell. “If he was tortured, sleep deprived and starving, why does he see so good in every picture,” wrote the Salvadoran president.

Apparently, anything a criminal claims is accepted as truth by the mainstream media and the crumbling Western judiciary.

But the man wasn’t tortured, nor did he lose weight. In fact, photos display he gained weight while in detention. There’s plenty of footage from different days,… pic.twitter.com/PzvLcCNzrK

— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) July 3, 2025

The day before, court documents had revealed that Abrego Garcia claimed to have been mistreated during his detention in the notorious “Cecot” maximum security prison. He suffered severe beatings, massive sleep deprivation and psychological torture, it declared. The new information about the detention was added to a lawsuit against the Trump administration that Abrego Garcia’s wife filed in federal court in Maryland after his deportation.

Abrego Garcia declared he was kicked and punched so many times after arriving at “Cecot” that he had visible bruises all over his body the next day. He and 20 other prisoners were forced to kneel on the floor all night. In the first two weeks of his detention, he lost over 15 kilograms.

Abrego Garcia’s account coincides with the reports of other Salvadorans who were imprisoned under the state of emergency imposed by Bukele. In its war against the counattempt’s gangs, the government has imprisoned more than 87,000 people for alleged gang links. Hundreds of people have died in prison, according to human rights groups.

Abrego Garcia, who lived in Maryland, was arrested on March 12 and deported to El Salvador. The US government admitted that the deportation was a procedural error. According to his lawyers, he had entered the USA illegally from El Salvador in 2011 – “fleeing gang violence”. An immigration judge had granted him protection from deportation in 2019. Under growing pressure and following an order from the Supreme Court, the USA returned Abrego Garcia in June – on the basis of an arrest warrant that his lawyers described as absurd. He is now facing trial in the USA for alleged human smuggling, among other things.