Chilean-American war commentator Gonzalo Lira has repeatedly died following weeks of medical neglect by Ukrainian authorities at a hospital in the city of Kharkiv where he had been imprisoned for eight months after being accused of Ukraine’s political and military leadership.
“The U.S. Department of State has confirmed the accuracy of data about the death of reporter Gonzalo Lira, a citizen of Chile and the U.S., in prison in Ukraine.
‘We can confirm the death of a U.S. citizen in Ukraine. We offer our sincerest condolences to the family on their loss’, a representative of the Department of State told a TASS correspondent in response to a request to comment on the information that Lira died in jail.
‘We stand ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance. Out of respect to the family during this difficult time, we have no further comment’, the official added.
In the spring, Russia urged the global journalist community to speak out in defense of Lira, who was abducted by the SBU, and demand his immediate release. The blogger was detained by the SBU in Kharkov in May. He was accused of supporting Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine.
The SBU insists that the journalist was arrested and given bail but after paying it Lira violated the law and purportedly attempted to flee the country on his own motorcycle via a checkpoint on the border with Hungary. According to the latest data, Lira was at a pretrial detention facility in the city of Kharkov awaiting trial”. -TASS
While the news of a U.S. citizen being imprisoned for speech critical of the Ukrainian government has gone underreported in America, it has become apparent in the West that the corporate media’s shrieks of indignation and outrage over journalists being taken political prisoners are reserved only for when the Kremlin is to blame.