Originally published September 20, 2023 8:00 pm PDT
American citizen journalist Gonzalo Lira is currently in a Ukrainian prison cell as the United States government debates sending more money to the struggling country.
QUICK FACTS:
- American journalist Gonzalo Lira is currently locked in a Ukraine prison cell as the Biden administration and the U.S. government contemplate sending more money to the country to protect their “freedoms.”
- The Biden regime is now asking Congress to approve another $24 billion for Ukraine, adding to the $113 billion that the government has already committed to the country since the start of the war with Russia.
- Joe Biden argued this week that investment in Ukraine represents an investment in “the future of every country that seeks a world governed by basic rules.”
- Lira, a dual citizen of the United States and Chile, is reportedly facing between five to eight years in prison under Ukraine’s wartime propaganda laws.
- In July 2023, the journalist posted messages on Twitter and YouTube claiming that he was going to try to cross the Ukrainian border into Hungary in order to claim asylum after being released from prison on bail.
- He’s not been seen on social media since.
- Lira said that if he had not posted after his attempt to cross the border, he would have most likely been arrested by Ukrainian authorities.
- “The American State Department knows exactly who I am and the fate that awaits me,” he said before trying to cross the border.
- According to a copy of his charges, the Ukrainian government claimed that Lira “had a criminal intent aimed at the manufacture, distribution materials containing justification, recognition as legitimate, denial of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, which began in 2014, as well as justification, recognition as legitimate of the temporary occupation of part of Ukraine territory.”
CITIZEN JOURNALIST GONZALO LIRA ON UKRAINIAN OFFICIALS PRESSING CHARGES AGAINST HIM:
“The charges against me are just because of my opinion about this conflict, I did no harm to anyone,” Lira said.
