Kilmar Abrego Garcia tortured in El Salvador prison, U.S. court filings say
Global News
According to court documents, Abrego Garcia suffered sleep deprivation, beatings, inadequate nutrition and psychological torment during his stint at the notoriously brutal prison.
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Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran man residing in Maryland who was wrongly deported to CECOT, a mega-jail in El Salvador whose name translates roughly as the Terrorism Confinement Centre, says he was subjected to severe physical and psychological torture while detained.
According to new court documents filed Wednesday, Abrego Garcia suffered sleep deprivation, beatings, inadequate nutrition and psychological torment during his stint at the notoriously brutal prison.
The father of three was deported to El Salvador in March, despite a 2019 protection order prohibiting it, over claims he was involved in gang activity, but was abruptly transferred to a Tennessee jail last month on separate human smuggling charges after U.S. President Donald Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele repeatedly ignored lawmakers’ demands to bring him back to the U.S.
On June 25, a U.S. federal judge ruled that Abrego Garcia had a right to be released while he awaits trial on the smuggling charges. Nonetheless, he will remain in jail while lawyers spar over whether federal prosecutors can stop U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from deporting him to El Salvador again.
Abrego Garcia was first transported to his country of birth on March 15 on one of several Trump-ordered flights from the U.S. carrying alleged criminals to CECOT. He claims to have endured severe abuse from the moment he arrived.
When disembarking the aircraft, he was grabbed by guards and pushed down the stairs head-first, the court documents say. He also claims the ordeal was filmed.
Shortly after, Abrego Garcia was “pushed toward a bus, forcibly seated, and fitted with a second set of chains and handcuffs and was repeatedly hit by officers when he attempted to raise his head,” the court filing reads.
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