US Citizen Who Was Arrested in Ukraine for His Speech Attempts to Flee to Hungary

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.

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

(The entire thread above is a must-read — Ed.)

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.

Source: Antiwar

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave. View all posts by Dave DeCamp

Top image: Gonzalo Lira, Wikipedia

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