Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday condemned the Salvadoran courts, saying that since the beginning of 2026 they have begun holding trials that convict hundreds of defendants at a time, relying on uncorroborated evidence and giving defendants no chance to prepare a defense.

Commenting on the mass trials, Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch, stated:

These hearings are designed to produce guilty verdicts, not to weigh evidence under due process. The result is not accountability for the victims of gang violence, it is simply rubber stamping the mass incarceration under four years of the state of emergency.

Following a severe spike in gang homicides in March 2022, El Salvador implemented a nationwide state of exception (emergency powers) that has been repeatedly renewed. The Salvadoran Congress passed laws specifically allowing prosecutors to group multiple defendants into a single trial based simply on the allegation that they belong to the same “gang cell” or region.

An estimated 120,000 people (two percent of the population) are currently incarcerated in El Salvador, one of the world’s highest incarceration rates. Salvadoran prisoners have long suffered from overcrowding, violence, and inadequate access to basic needs. More than 93,000 people, including 3,000 children, have been detained under El Salvador’s emergency order. Over 90 percent of those arrested have been imprisoned for years while awaiting trial, violating their right to a trial within a reasonable time, protected by Article 14(3)(c) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

The mass trials convicting hundreds of people simultaneously are part of President Nayib Bukele’s sweeping crackdown on gang violence. The El Salvador government claims these methods are an “efficient, necessary way to dismantle powerful criminal syndicates like MS-13 and Barrio 18”; international human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch argue the system is systematically unfair due to intentional, severe violations of defendants’ due process.

Human Rights Watch interviewed defense lawyers who claimed prosecutors routinely relied on police reports to seek convictions. Police officers have told Human Rights Watch they were pressured to produce generic, inaccurate reports based on fabricated or uncorroborated evidence to comply with an arrest quota.

The fabricated evidence and mass trials before the Tribunals Against Organized Crime —a tribunal that restricts public access and hides the judges’ and witnesses’ identities from the defense–– are direct violations of Article 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which guarantees that each defendant is entitled, in full equality, to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal. It also violates Article 14 of the ICCPR, which guarantees fair treatment and equality before the courts and a fair hearing by a competent, independent, and impartial tribunal established by law.

Lawyers said judges routinely blocked them from accessing defendants’ files, claiming they were under seal. Lawyers were also prevented from speaking privately with their clients, effectively blocking them from mounting an adequate defense. Public defenders had only a few minutes to represent dozens, occasionally hundreds, of defendants simultaneously.

The American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR) and the ICCPR, to which El Salvador is a party, guarantee that everyone charged with a crime has the right to be informed promptly and in detail of the charges against them, has the right to communicate with counsel of their choosing, is presumed innocent until proven guilty, and has adequate time and facilities to prepare a defense. El Salvador’s group trials, which have seen numerous innocent people arrested with no legal avenue to prove their innocence, are a direct violation of essential human rights.