SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador, Aug 12, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Family members of a dozen people accused of plotting to disrupt Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele's inauguration denounced the trial as a "judicial barbarity," as it was postponed to September 7.

The proceedings against three former leftist guerillas, seven former soldiers and a media worker were set to begin on Tuesday.

The defendants, arrested between May and June of 2024, are accused of planning explosions at gas stations, supermarkets and other public settings to disrupt Bukele's inauguration.

The event on June 1 of that year passed without incident.

Family members read a statement during a protest outside the court, where they called the trial a "barbarity" riven with irregularities.

"There isn't even a single real piece of evidence incriminating" the accused, they said, condemning the charges as "false."

They also complained that the defendants would be tried under the state of emergency underpinning Bukele's war on gangs, even though they are not accused of belonging to those groups.

Such trials are held in secret, which defense lawyers say hampers their work.

The relatives also object to their case being handled by a "faceless judge," as magistrates whose identities are kept secret as part of the restrictions are known.

Around 92,000 people have been detained without a court order under the state of emergency, which international organizations say has led to abuses that could constitute crimes against humanity.

"From minute zero, it's been demonstrated that my father and his companions are innocent," said Mextli Montalvo, the daughter of the septuagenarian Atilio Montalvo, a signatory to the 1992 peace accords that ended the Salvadoran Civil War, which left around 75,000 dead.

Health concerns mean Montalvo is the only defendant facing his trial as a free man. On Tuesday he appeared in court in a wheelchair.

"Ever since they were arrested, we don't know anything about them... What we are requesting and demanding is their urgent release, and that they are totally absolved," said Rosa Flores, another family member.

Bukele, whose party dominates the legislature and whose allies control the judiciary, will seek a third term next February after legal reforms opened the possibility of indefinite reelection.