Abrego Garcia says he endured, torture in the Salvadorian prison
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Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoral migrant wrongly expelled by the Trump administration in Salvador, was beaten and psychologically tortured while he was detained in the country, according to court documents – one of the many disclosure revealed just a few days before a major hearing in Maryland.
The status of status in Greenbelt, Maryland, is almost certain to revive a legal struggle closely viewed against Abrego Garcia and its legal status in the United States, which currently takes place separately in two federal courts.
In a new judicial file submitted to the American district judge Paula Xinis, the lawyers of Abrego Garcia described a long list of their client abuse at the center of confinement of terrorism, or Cecot, a notorious anti -terrorist prison in El Salvador, in particular the deprivation of sleep, psychological torture and severe beats.
These abuses started when migrants arrived in prison in March. There, they were greeted by a prison guard who said: “Welcome to Cecot. He who entered here does not leave.”
Trump’s remarks could come back to bite him into the deportation battle of Abrego Garcia
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, President Donald Trump and Prosecutor General Pam Bondi during a meeting from the Cabinet to the White House. (Samuel Corum / Sipa / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
According to court documents, Abrego Garcia was immediately marked by the frog in his cell by prison guards, who kicked him with boots and struck him with wooden batons along the way, leaving bumps and bruises visible on his body.
He and other cell detainees slept on metal mattresses, with minimal access to food and satiety. They were also forced to kneel for about nine hours, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., “with guards striking anyone who fell out of exhaustion”.
Abrego Garcia’s physical condition quickly deteriorated – in two weeks, said his lawyers, he lost around 31 pounds.
He was also psychologically tortured and received threats of violence during his stay in Cecot, according to the file, where the prison guards told him on several occasions that they would transfer him in other prison cells housing violent gang members, that they assured him “would tear”.
In fact, said the deposit, Abrego Garcia “observed prisoners several times in neighboring cells” injuring himself violently “without intervention by guards or staff”.
“The cries of neighboring cells would also sound throughout the night without any response from prison guards or staff,” they said.
The file, in part, seems to undermine the repeated affirmations of the administration officials according to which Abrego Garcia is a member of the Gang MS -13 – noting that the officials of Cecot prison “explicitly recognized” his tattoos “were not linked to the gang”, and said to him: “Your tattoos have well”. “”
Inmates at the anti -terrorist confinement center (CECOC) in Tecoleca, El Salvador, January 27, 2025. (Marvin Recinos / AFP via Getty Images)
The breathtaking conditions of CECOT described in the file are part of several questions which should arise on Monday, when judge Xinis holds an audience in Greenbelt, Maryland.
There, she will examine a wave of recent requests from the Trump administration and the legal team of Abrego Garcia – including a government request to reject the case as theoretical, and a request of the complainants to sanction officials for having pretended to facilitate his return to the United States
His lawyers claim that the case is not theoretical, because Xinis can always order his return to Maryland. They asked him this week that she ordered him to return to the Tennessee district, where he had been sent to his return to the United States to cope with criminal accusations. They also asked that Xinis blocks the possible withdrawal of Abrego Garcia from the United States without prior notification, pointing to declarations of the Trump administration.
“The defendants have repeatedly declared their intention to withdraw Mr. Abrego Garcia from a third country,” said his lawyers in a Wednesday file, adding that he could face “persecution or torture if it is transferred directly to various other countries”, in particular Libya, Sudan of the South and Eritrea, which are notorious for human rights hypergores.
Adding to the complexity of the question is the distinct criminal affair which takes place in Tennessee.
The federal judge supervising this case ordered the Trump administration on Thursday to comply with the rules prohibiting the Ministry of Justice and DHS officials to make public statements on Abrego Garcia who could potentially prejudge a jury or have an impact on the integrity of legal proceedings.
The American judge exploded Trump’s lawyers for the 11th hour tactics in the MS-13 expulsion case
Secretary Kristi Noem pronounces remarks to the DHS headquarters on January 28, 2025. (Manuel Balce Ceneta-Pool / Getty Images)
ABREGO GARCIA’s lawyers told the judge in a separate file on Wednesday evening that the Trump administration had, for months, made “extended and inflammatory extrajudicial comments (Abrego) which are likely to prejudge his right to a fair trial”, in particular “tirelessly” dozen occasions after his accusation, despite the fact that he has not yet had a trial.
They noted that the judge magistrate Barbara Holmes, the judge supervising the criminal affair, previously ordered his trial while waiting, citing a lack of evidence and the “double hearing” presented by the government during its indictment in June.
“Until now, the public denigration of Mr. Abrego’s government has greatly exceeded its ability to bring together real evidence, despite its extraordinary efforts to evoke such evidence,” they said.
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The following steps remain deeply uncertain, taking into account the complexity of affairs and the double nature of civil and criminal affairs.
Xinis previously pointed out the frustration and impatience with the Trump administration for the slowness of certain requests, or the fact of not complying with the requests for discovery of the court.
She reprimanded the lawyers of the Ministry of Justice to more than one opportunity for what she described as their “vague, elusive and incomplete responses, which, what she suggested, demonstrate” a deliberate and bad refusal to comply with the discovery obligations “.
The two parties will appear before the court on Monday at 11 a.m.
