After being arrested by Ukrainian authorities and not posting anything on social media for months, Chilean-American blogger and political commentator Gonzalo Lira has released messages claiming that he was trying to escape Ukraine, but some are claiming that he has been taken back into custody.
Mark Sleboda, who claims to have been in contact with Lira and has appeared on several media outlets as an international relations analyst, stated on August 2nd, just two days after Lira had claimed to be fleeing Ukraine, that Lira had been unsuccessful in leaving the country.
Speaking on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, Sleboda wrote:
I can affirm that Gonzalo Lira @GonzaloLira1968 wanted by the Kiev Putsch regime for the crime of criticizing it (aka as “free speech”), tried to escape the West-backed Kiev Putsch regime across the Ukrainian border into Hungary where he intended to request political asylum.
I can further affirm that @GonzaloLira1968 was stopped on the Ukrainian side of the border from crossing and has since disappeared, now for more than 24 hours. That is the last that anyone has heard from him.
Sleboda’s claim came after Lira posted a 25-part thread on X, alleging that he was attempting to flee Ukraine and cross into Hungary, where he wanted to apply for political asylum.
Lira, who has been vocal in his criticism of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his government, while often praising Russia and its president Vladimir Putin, was arrested in May in the city of Kharkiv, where he had been living for several years.
Reports at the time claimed Lira’s arrest was related to his video commentary. Ukrainian authorities had accused him of trying to discredit the political and military leadership of Ukraine and supporting Russia’s invasion of the country.
In his July 31st X posts, Lira also posted documents relating to his indictment in Ukrainian and an apparent English translation, noting that none of the charges related to crimes against property or persons, nor did they allege Lira gave aid or intelligence to Russian forces.
Lira also claimed that he was denied access to contacting anyone, including his own lawyers and was denied the ability to post bail.
Most disturbingly, Lira alleged that he had been tortured and extorted for $70,000 while being held at a pre-trial detention centre, known in Ukraine as a SIZO.
According to Lira, several inmates tortured him while in the SIZO, viciously beating him and demanding he hand over $70,000. He stated that in one torture session that lasted around 30 hours, an inmate scratched the white of his eyeball with a toothpick.
While Lira’s claims are unsubstantiated, prior reports have criticised the conditions in SIZO detention centres. A 2006 report by a Ukrainian human rights group stated a SIZO in Kharkiv was so full that many inmates lacked their own beds and that hygiene levels were abysmal, noting “cells teeming with cockroaches, fleas and other parasites.”
Reports of torture by Ukrainians have also been widely claimed by Russian prisoners of war (POW). According to a United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) report published in March, 113 Russian POWs out of 229 interviewed claimed to have been tortured.
The report also notes that some of the POWs had been extorted, similar to Gonzalo Lira’s claims.
“Sixty-six POWs stated that their interrogators, mostly servicepersons, tortured and ill-treated them to extract information, punish, humiliate and intimidate them, and, in several cases, get access to their bank details,” the report states.
According to Lira’s posts, he surmised that SBU agents had managed to view his banking details after seizing his electronic devices and used prisoners to torture him in order to get access to the funds, although he has not shown any evidence of this in his posts.
He noted that he was trying to escape to Hungary because he did not believe any other European Union country would grant him political asylum and would likely deport him back to Ukraine if an international arrest warrant was issued.
“If you don’t hear from me in the next 12 hours—whelp! I’m on my way to a labor camp! Wish me luck,” he concluded in his final post.
Lira claimed that his trial was scheduled to be held on August 2nd, but so far, no Ukrainian media has mentioned the trial.
Transgender spokesman for the Ukrainian military Sarah Ashton-Cirillo hinted that Lira had been caught by the SBU while trying to cross the border, but stated in a later video that it was unknown where Lira was.
