US journalist Gonzalo Lira is being imprisoned and possibly tortured in Ukraine for the crime of criticizing the government. His father charged the Biden Regime with “complicity, or at least tacit approval” of Lira’s custody. The US Embassy in Kiev said they are in “frequent contact with Mr. Lira and his counsel regarding his detention, and we attend his court proceedings.”
Gonzalo Lira became famous as YouTuber “Coach Red Pill” 2017, in the first heyday of MAGA YouTube, before leaving the United States for Kharkiv, Ukraine end of 2021, where he happened to end up in the middle of the Russian invasion.
When Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Gonzalo Lira happened to be in Kiev, staying at the hotel where numerous Western journalists congregated. He became one of the very first critics of Western strategy in Ukraine, calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “evil” and trolling Western correspondents as “system pigs.”
On May 5, 2023, Ukraine’s notorious SBU security service announced they had arrested Gonzalo Lira, calling him “Moscow-aligned” and accusing him “of denying Russian war crimes and insulting Ukrainian troops,” New Voice of Ukraine reported.
Lira was accused of “denying Russian war crimes” and “justifying Russian aggression,” as well a claiming that Ukraine was “shelling its own territory” and that “a neo-Nazi regime ruled the country.”
“Such activities constitute a criminal offense under Article 436-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (justification, recognition as lawful, denial of Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine, glorification of its participants)”, New Voice of Ukraine wrote: The SBU security service “documented Lira’s activities and served the blogger with a notice of suspicion.”
“In May 2023, the court imposed on him a preventive measure in the form of detention with the possibility of bail. He was initially released on house arrest after posting the bail, but was arrested again in July when he attempted to cross the border into Hungary on his motorcycle,” New Voice of Ukraine writes.
On July 31, 2023, Gonzalo Lira posted three videos in which he claimed he had spent “9 ½ weeks in prison” and had been out on bail since July 6. He also posted a Twitter thread containing the charges against him, saying he was due to stand trial on August 2nd.
Right now, I’m about to try to get out of Ukraine, and seek political asylum in Hungary.
Either I’ll cross the border and make it to safety, or I’ll be disappeared by the Kiev regime.
This is what’s happened to me over the past three months.
1/25
— Gonzalo Lira (@GonzaloLira1968) July 31, 2023
He was charged with the “production and distribution of materials containing the justification, recognition as legitimate, denial of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, which began in 2014, including by presenting the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine as an internal conflict, justifying, recognizing as legitimate the temporary occupation of part of the territory of Ukraine.”
The penalty Lira faces is “5 to 8 years in a prison labor camp”, he said, noting he is 55 and has a “fairly serious heart condition: I’m not gonna survive 5 to 8 years.”
Once inside Sizo pretrial investigation prison (Lukyanivska Prison in Kiev), Lira said he was initially not allowed to post bail. He spoke to representatives of the US State Department three times during the nine weeks he was there, he said. “They made no effort to pull me out. If I’d been a black lesbian druggie or a transgender grifter, I would’ve been out instantly,” Lira said.
Sources told him Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland “hates my guts,” Lira claimed.
Lira said he 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.”
“I got a cracked rib in my first cell, but it wasn’t too bad. The worst stretch was in my fourth cell. From 1 pm on June 21 until 7 pm the next day—30 hours—I was beaten and sleep deprived, my arms twisted the wrong way around at the shoulders, and generally beaten pretty bad,“ Lira posted.
Two inmates held his head, and “one of them used a toothpick to scratch the whites of my left eye”, Lira said, “and the other said, ‘You can read with just one eye, right?’ That really freaked me out.”
Near the end of this session, one of the thugs struck me in the chest so hard and so repetitively that the beating left a yellow-and-green splotch dead-center on my sternum.
He was >berated< by the cell boss, because he’d left a mark on me—which was a no-no.
>Perceptions<
12/
— Gonzalo Lira (@GonzaloLira1968) July 31, 2023
He was eventually allowed to post bail, Lira said on July 31, but had to surrender his documents, wear an ankle monitor, and wasn’t allowed to leave the embattled city of Kharkov. They also confiscated all of his electronic devices and $9000 in emergency cash, Lira said.
Then as luck would have it, two days later—when the bruising was in full bloom—a senior guard came to give me a wellness check!
This was likely because of the Chilean embassy efforts.
The US embassy called me three times, but gave me nothing but “support”—empty bromides.
13/
— Gonzalo Lira (@GonzaloLira1968) July 31, 2023
When an SBU officed returned his documents and was no longer required to wear his ankle monitor, Lira took this as a tacit nudge from the Ukrainian officials to leave the country, which he then attempted to do.
Later at the SBU offices, they >returned other documents< they’d confiscated—my driver’s license and my motorcycle registration.
In Sizo, I told an inmate how last year I’d been detained, released, but told not to leave Ukraine. He laughed. “They were telling you to leave!”
20/
— Gonzalo Lira (@GonzaloLira1968) July 31, 2023
“I rode my motorcycle across Ukraine—1,400 kms in two days. I’m going to Hungary to ask for political asylum,” he posted on August 1.
That was the last that has been heard from him.
“Lira is currently being held in the Kharkiv pretrial detention center. His court hearing is scheduled for December 12 and December 21”, New Voice of Ukraine wrote on Dec. 10.
Tucker Carlson spoke to Gonzalo Lira’s father, as Gateway Pundit reported, who said he had not heard from his son, who has been in prison for 7 months without trial, and charged the State Department with complicity.
Ep. 47 Gonzalo Lira is an American citizen who’s been tortured in a Ukrainian prison since July, for the crime of criticizing Zelensky. Biden officials approve of this, because they’d like to apply the same standard here. The media agree. Here’s a statement from Gonzalo Lira’s… pic.twitter.com/4H2otHhYHi
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) December 9, 2023
“He was assigned a Ukrainian attorney who doesn’t speak English,” Gonzalo Lira Sr. said.
The US Embassy in Ukraine “hasn’t done a thing,” Gonzalo Lira Sr. charged. “Neither I nor his sister living in the USA have been able to communicate” with Lira, his father said. “The Embassy never visited him, except, for the first time, at his court appointment Nov. 8th.”
“An American citizen is in jail because he was exercising his right of freedom of speech,” Lira Sr. said. “The US government’s silence suggests a degree of complicity, or at least tacit approval of Gonzalo’s arrest since nothing else convincingly explains the conspicuous lack of response.”
“Last April 27 of this year, Gonzalo posted a video heavily criticizing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Four days later, the Zelensky police detained Gonzalo,” his father noted. “Why was he not detained earlier?”
“Did the State Department give the green light to Zelensky to put my son in jail?” Gonzalo Lira Sr. asked.
An American citizen is in prison n Ukraine after we sent over a $100 billion?
Is there more to this story than simply criticizing Zelensky?
If that’s all it is, then we have serious problem here.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2023
Ukrainian law enforcement’s actions were “carried out in accordance with the law,” the Security Service (SBU) told New Voice of Ukraine.
A spokesman for the US Embassy in Kiev told the Gateway Pundit, “We are aware of the detention of Mr. Lira in Ukraine. We take our role in assisting U.S. citizens abroad seriously and are providing all appropriate assistance. We are in frequent contact with Mr. Lira and his counsel regarding his detention, and we attend his court proceedings. We are monitoring the situation but have no further comment at this time. We reiterate our message that U.S. citizens should not travel to Ukraine due to the active armed conflict.”
Gateway Pundit has also sent inquiries to the US State Department and the Ukrainian SBU. We will update with any reply we receive.
What is the status of this American journalist @JoeBiden? https://t.co/KBPCxU0Roa
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 10, 2023
