El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has denied allegations that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a former US resident, was beaten and psychologically tortured in one of the country’s high-security prisons.

In a post on the social media platform X, Bukele wrote that Abrego Garcia "wasn’t tortured, nor did he lose weight," and shared photos and video of Abrego Garcia inside a detention cell.

"If he’d been tortured, sleep-deprived, and starved, why does he look so well in every picture?" Bukele wrote.

The president's remarks came after Abrego Garcia detailed his alleged mistreatment in a US federal court filing on Wednesday.

He said that after being mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March by the Trump administration, he was held at the country's maximum-security CECOT prison, where he faced severe beatings, sleep deprivation and psychological abuse.

According to the filing, Abrego Garcia said he and 20 others were forced to kneel all night and were beaten if they fell.

He also described being confined to metal bunks without mattresses in an overcrowded cell with no windows, lights on 24 hours a day, and little access to sanitation.

His claims mirror those made by other detainees held underEl Salvador’s ongoing state of emergency, during which over 1 percent of the country’s population has been detained as part of a crackdown on gangs.

Abrego Garcia, who was living in Maryland, became a high-profile case during US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

The new allegations were added to a lawsuit filed by his wife in Maryland federal court after his deportation.

The Trump administration has asked a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the matter is moot because Abrego Garcia has since been returned to the United States.