Gonzalo Lira, an American citizen who was arrested in Ukraine in May, said on social media on Monday night that he was released on bail and was attempting to cross into Hungary to seek political asylum.
Lira is a popular YouTuber and writer and was arrested by the Ukrainian Security Services (SBU) for creating content that was critical of the Ukrainian government and explaining how the Russia-Ukraine war was provoked. He was charged over claims that he justified the Russian invasion.
Lira wrote on Twitter, now known as X, that his trial was scheduled for August 2 and that he was told he would be found guilty, and that his sentence will be five to eight years in a prison labor camp.
“If you don’t hear from me in the next 12 hours—whelp! I’m on my way to a labor camp!” he wrote. It’s been over 24 hours since his tweet and since he uploaded videos to YouTube explaining the situation, posts Lira said he made just as he was getting to the Ukraine-Hungary border checkpoint.
Lira posted a document that he said was the indictment against him, both in Ukrainian and an English translation. “My indictment explicitly states that all I did was discuss publicly known facts about the war—the epitome of free speech in a democracy,” he said.
Lira alleged that he was tortured during his time in a Ukrainian prison. “Once inside Sizo Prison, I was tortured in two of the four cells I was in—by the other prisoners. Guards NEVER beat prisoners—they outsource torture to the other prisoners. One prisoner actually apologized to me, telling me he had no choice. He wasn’t lying. I understood,” he said.
Lira, who is also a Chilean citizen, said the State Department did not offer much help. “The US embassy called me three times, but gave me nothing but ‘support’—empty bromides,” he said.
Back in May, the State Department refused to say if it was working to free Lira when asked about his case. On Tuesday, Grayzone reporter Liam Cosgrove asked State Department spokesman Matthew Miller about Lira in the wake of his social media posts. Miller said he couldn’t comment until the situation was confirmed. “I think I’d want to verify those reports before I commented on it,” Miller said.
Unfortunately, Hungary only take Euro, USD and Forint not Lira.
Not funny, he is running for his life!!!!! He thinks the UkiesWANT to be rid of him. Fellow prisoners said when t6hey gave him his passports it was to get rid of him.
Hey! The world is about to burn. I will have my 2 minutes of humor before we all get roasted.
me too. hey, MAKE SURE TO VOTE!
https://youtu.be/o8hYrNsRoTs
LOL! Thank you.
Two minutes of humor Bfor getting roasted doesn’t sound like a very good deal to me. But tonights question IS will Gonzalo get 8 years hard labor in Ukraine or freedom & asylum in Hungary? & when will we KNOW?@ theduran.locals.com
pretty lame if you can’t criticize those in power.
even more lame when those in power suppress the majority for speaking a different language. analogy = Pee-Wee Herman is elected president of Mexico and then makes it illegal to speak Spanish.
I was going to say “ But he’s dead” and thought sbout how that doesn’t stop our politicians from being in office, so point taken.
You need to revise your understand of humor. Ask any comedian and you’ll be told that mocking the plight of someone rich and powerful can be funny, but targeting someone who is a target of the powerful never is.
His escape posted at theduran.locals.com
Ah, our “freedom” (and Nazi) loving Ukrainian pals locking up and torturing the opposition.
My thoughts go to Gonzalo Lira for his dash to freedom. We already know our state department isn’t going to help an American citizen.
One wonders why the Ukraine released him on bail two days before his trial and returned his computer? Would they do that if they were serious about convicting him or when they have put away and executed others in Ukraine who were highly critical of the regime- as he himself appeared to be when he was posting with guests supposedly in an unknown location in Ukraine which any IT expert would have located?
Note that others including prominent US citizens are on the SBU’s hit list. There are many questions dating back to 2021 which suggest his
complicity with the SBU. I recommend listening to Scott Ritter’s August 1, 2023 “Ask the Inspector” Q&A and his analysis. especially given his CIA analyst background.
What would be the advantage of this for the SBU, in your opinion? Is he going to turn prowar?
The advantage is they pocket the bail bond.
Yeesh, they aren’t getting enough from the billions upon billions of US $?
Not according to Zelensky, no.
The usual reason for pocketing the bail money is that the defendant has successfully left the jurisdiction and failed to appear for judicial proceedings.
Also, the bail amount, IIRC, is trivial. Ukraine is flush with billions in Western cash. It’s kinda silly to think the SBU would bother to stage an elaborate scenario to justify keeping the money. If they wanted it, if they cared about it at all, surely they’d just take it.
There’s no amount of money too small for these grifters not to filch.
I didn’t say there is. Your post isn’t responsive to my reply to yours.
Gonzalo’s bail was the equivalent of $11,000. That’s not a trivial amount in a country where the average income is less than $200 a month
It’s a trivial amount to decision-makers in the SBU, decision-makers senior enough to be able to make decisions about a scenario like this involving an American citizen.
And the average income in Ukraine is not “less than $200 a month.”
My bad. The average Ukrainian income has made an incredible jump in the last year, to reach a staggering 15,000
Hryvni pêr month, that’s a little less than 410 USD. It’s still far below the plush 750 USD average wage in Romania, which is the closest thing to a third world country Europe has to offer.
This is a stupid conspiranoid post. The fact that what appears to actually be happening doesn’t match what you (or, more likely, what someone else you heard it from) imagine would have happened or should be happening tells us only that you are basing your “assessment” on imagination.
If you want us to believe that there are “many questions dating back to 2021 which suggest his complicity with the SBU,” you should at least share a couple of them with us and tell us why you think they suggest what you claim they suggest.
And you do not enhance your credibility with the final sentence of your post. Who told you that Ritter was ever a CIA analyst?
Could be they want to disappear him and are looking for a legal pretext. He was fleeing prosecution. He is quite a public figure and I imagine has some deep connections somewhere going to bat for him and buying him time. Otherwise how he’s still alive after being on their radar, being detained once before and still insistence on staying in Ukraine even after separating from his wife is beyond me.
This is all pointless speculation but, if you really want to speculate about “how he’s still alive,” perhaps consider that killing an American citizen, even one that the US government doesn’t much like, would very likely have an undesirable impact on Ukraine’s relations with its puppet master and sugar daddy.
NC Under Attack from Ukraine After Posting on Gonzalo Lira Being Tortured and Extorted While in Prison
A relatively feeble DDOS attack, but nonetheless an example of the behavior we should expect of those brave defenders of liberty and democracy, our bulwark against Russian conquest of the free world, Ukrainian patriots.