New US Report on Ukraine Human Rights Doesn’t Mention Deceased American Citizen Who Raised Torture Allegations

Last updated on August 7th, 2024 at 04:29 pm

The U.S. government’s 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices contains no mention of Gonzalo Lira, an American citizen and political commentator detained in Ukraine last year for speech-related offenses who died in January after alleging abuses by his captors and fellow detainees.

Lira had been living in Ukraine at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.

In years prior to the war, Lira had operated multiple YouTube channels and social media accounts discussing dating and relationship advice. By the start of the war, his focus had shifted toward the armed conflict, and he had republished imagery showing the actions of Ukrainian forces during the conflict, and had spoken critically of the Ukrainian and U.S.  governments.

Lira was arrested by Ukrainian authorities in May 2023, on charges his social media activity constituted pro-Russian disinformation and justification of the Russian invasion.

Lira was briefly released from Ukrainian custody in August, at which point he posted videos on YouTube alleging prison guards put his fellow inmates up to their “dirty work” by repeatedly beating him, and extorting him for money. In one of his August videos, Lira stated he sustained injuries to his chest at the hands of his fellow inmates.

The dissident Lira had said he’d been told “by people who would know” that he will be found guilty in a Ukrainian court and will “basically disappear” to a Ukrainian prison labor camp where he may die “either naturally or unnaturally.” In his August videos, Lira announced his intent to flee to Hungary to seek asylum, and predicted that if he failed in his attempt to leave the country, he would most likely die in the Ukrainian prison system.

Lira was indeed rearrested and remained in Ukrainian custody until Jan. 11, when he died. In a handwritten letter he shared with his family in the weeks before his death, Lira announced he had double pneumonia in lungs as well as pneumothorax (a collapsed lung) and a very severe case of edema (swelling of the body), including around his lungs. He said these medical conditions arose in October, but had been ignored by his Ukrainian captors.

This publication has repeatedly reached out to the State Department for details about what actions it took, if any, on Lira’s behalf during his time in Ukrainian custody. The State Department has acknowledged his death, and said consular staff had monitored his case and his health status. The department has not provided FreeBase News with more specific records of its claimed efforts to monitor Lira’s case.

The Human Rights Report

The State Department’s latest human rights report covers a comprehensive list of alleged human rights abuses occurring in countries across the globe in 2023, including alleged abuses in Ukraine.

“The Department of State strives to make the Country Reports comprehensive, objective, and uniform in scope,” the report’s preparatory appendix states. “We seek a high standard of consistency in the reports, despite the multiplicity of sources and the diversity of countries covered.  For purposes of focus and streamlining, the reports select illustrative examples of alleged abuses or violations and follow up in most instances only on the previous year’s high-profile unresolved allegations.”

For each covered country, the report covers a range of human rights concerns, including whether the country takes political prisoners; engages in torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; permits harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; and serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, “including violence or threats of violence against journalists, unjustified arrests or prosecutions of journalists, censorship, and criminal libel.”

A portion of the report on Ukraine’s torture record notes an incident where two police officers in Cherkasy Oblast “illegally arrested a local resident” and engaged in “cruel and degrading punishment to extract a confession, including beating and firing several shots near the victim.” Elsewhere, the report states Serhiy Lutsyuk, the chief military commissar of Rivne Oblast, beat a fellow officer with a baseball bat.

A portion of the report on Ukraine’s prison conditions states:

Prison and detention center conditions remained poor and at times posed a serious threat to the life and health of prisoners. Physical abuse, lack of proper medical care and nutrition, poor sanitation, and lack of adequate light were persistent problems. Inmates reported authorities and so-called assistants from the inmate population used cruel and degrading treatment, as well as physical and sexual violence. While officials generally allowed prisoners, except those in disciplinary cells, to receive visitors, prisoner rights groups noted some families had to pay bribes to obtain permission for visits to which they were entitled by law.

Another portion on Ukraine’s respect for the freedom of expression and press freedom noted a Ukrainian court fined a woman from the Poltava Oblast for selling items bearing communist symbols. This section also noted instances of attacks on journalists who reported on corruption allegations. The report states unknown men beat up Volodymyr Sedov, editor-in-chief of “Visti Ananyivshchyny” in the city of Ananyiv, Odesa Oblast. Sedov linked the attack to his work, including reporting on local government corrupt practices.

The State Department’s report also notes foreign journalists, including photojournalist Anton Skyba of “The Globe and Mail,” had struggled to gain press credentials to report near the frontlines of the war.

Although Lira’s case includes torture and bribery allegations like those detailed in the report, and although his prosecution at the hands of the Ukrainian government is directly related to his critical speech and publishing activities, the State Department’s report makes no specific mention of Lira or his case.