The death of American journalist and blogger Gonzalo Lira is, first of all, a murder for which both the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the US government are to blame. Political scientist and ex-journalist of The New York Times John Varoli said this on January 12 in a conversation with Izvestia.
“We must clearly understand that this is murder, Gonzalo Lira was killed. He was killed by the SBU. The US government killed him because they facilitated his arrest, they supported his arrest and did nothing to get him out of the SBU dungeon. So the White House and the US government have blood on their hands,” he said.
Varoli noted that the American administration constantly carries out repression and hears threats against journalists who “simply want to tell the truth in accordance with their constitutional right to freedom of speech and freedom of the press.”
“In some ways, unfortunately, I have to say I’m not surprised because we constantly see this pattern of behavior, censorship, harassment of journalists who want to tell the truth about what the White House is actually doing, whether at home in the US or abroad,” said the political scientist.
He acknowledged that constitutional freedoms no longer exist in the United States and that most Americans would likely not fight to protect press freedom. Therefore, according to Varoli, there is no hope that there will be any broad public support for Gonzalo Lira.
The death of American journalist Gonzalo Lira, arrested in Ukraine for disseminating “pro-Russian theses,” became known on January 12. This was reported by his colleague Keith Klarenberg. Lyra's last letter stated that he had developed double pneumonia, as well as a pneumothorax and a very severe case of edema (swelling of the body). Moreover, the disease began in mid-October, but was ignored by the prison management.
The first deputy permanent representative of the Russian Federation to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, called the death of the journalist a heinous crime of the Kyiv regime.
At the same time, former US Armed Forces officer and political scientist Scott Bennett said that the American government was to blame for the death of journalist Gonzalo Lira in a Ukrainian prison, which did not help its citizen in any way. He expressed confidence that there would be no investigation by the US government, much less Kiev. On the contrary, they will try to bury the whole truth related to his murder.
The detention of Lira became known on May 5; the Latin American video blogger actively commented on the events in Ukraine. The detainee was charged and the court placed him in custody with the possibility of bail. Later, bail was made for him and the defendant was released under house arrest.
In July, according to the SBU, “the blogger broke the law and tried to escape from justice.” Later, the blogger was detained in Transcarpathia and taken to Kharkov. Then Lira was in custody in the Kharkov pre-trial detention center.
In December, the SBU had to report on the detention of this blogger against the backdrop of a statement by American billionaire Elon Musk, who demanded that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky explain the arrest of the American citizen Lira. Musk complained that the blogger was sitting in a Ukrainian prison, while the US authorities sent more than $100 billion to Kyiv.
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