(Congress Report) – Matthew Miller, who is currently a spokesman for the State Department, refused to elaborate on the arrest of a United States citizen who is living in Ukraine by the Ukrainian government, according to a new report from Andrew Jose of The Western Journal.
Jose wrote that Miller was answering questions from journalists back on May 25, 2023, when journalist Liam Cosgrove from The Epoch Times asked about the arrest of the U.S. citizen.
The person that has been taken into custody is reportedly a writer and YouTube personality by the name of Gonzalo Lira, who was living in Kharkiv, Ukraine when he was arrested, The Post Millennial said.
“A U.S. citizen who is residing in Ukraine has been arrested and… he was a California-born man… He was an outspoken critic of Zelenskyy’s regime,” Cosgrove started to say, as per a video taken of the briefing.
“The Ukrainian SBU released a press release saying he was arrested for justifying Putin’s invasion. So ultimately, it added up to speech,” the reporter added.
American arrested in Ukraine for speech crimes…
Biden Regime's State Department won't commit to helping him. pic.twitter.com/IbI1r0Sfcq
— Red Voice Media (@redvoicenews) May 29, 2023
“And I spoke with Congressman Ted Lieu, a Democrat, and he said he urges the State Department to engage its authorities to work out some sort of negotiation to get him released. So, are you aware of this? How do we feel about our allies detaining U.S. citizens for speech abroad?” Cosgrove then remarked.
Miller responded by going on to say the State Department was not aware of any report concerning the arrest of Gonzalo. “We obviously support the exercise of freedom of speech anywhere in the world, and I’ll leave it at that,” Miller stated.
As the journalist continued to apply pressure on Miller to provide more details on the situation, asking if the State Department was doing anything to get Lira released from jail, Miller went on to say, “I’m going to leave my comments where I just left them,” before shutting down the conversation and moving on to another journalist.
The Security Service of Ukraine, the SBU, which is basically their version of our own FBI, announced back on May 5 that it had taken into custody a “foreign blogger who publicly justified the armed aggression of the Russian Federation and spread fakes about the war in Ukraine” in the city of Kharkiv.
The agency dropped a post on Telegram where they leveled accusations against Lira of being “one of the first to support the Russian invaders and glorify their war crimes” and also claimed the blogger was involved in “discrediting” political and military leadership in the country. So apparently, Ukraine is just as awful as their enemies in Russia when it comes to silencing those who don’t follow their official narrative. And yet they expect everyone else to see them as the good guys in the conflict?
Lira used to contribute work for the Insider.
“Born in Santiago, Chile, Lira was a novelist and scriptwriter, having written several works in Spanish, according to his biography on the site,” Cohen noted in his piece.
“According to the outlet, Lira has been critical of the Ukrainian position in the war and supportive of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. He promoted claims of bio-labs in Ukraine and hailed Russia’s invasion as one of the most brilliant invasions in military history,’ The Daily Beast reported,” Cohen continued.
Lira is also not a big fan of American media who have been covering the Ukraine/Russia war, referring to them as “system pig journalists” releasing video of such individuals eating a meal at their hotel.
Just saw this guy, Gonzalo Lira Lopez, on #Russia's state TV. He is sitting somewhere in Kyiv, bashing Ukraine and the U.S., while simultaneously praising Russia.
He calls himself "Coach Red Pill" and filming American journalists eating at their hotel (thread). pic.twitter.com/mdoXzVEODA
— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) March 1, 2022
“This justice has been a long time coming,” U.S. journalist Sarah Ashton-Cirillo, who is currently a volunteer in the Ukrainian army, declared.
“His arrest this week shows that Ukrainian officials don’t bow to popular pressure when a factual investigation leads to the truth,” Ashton-Cirillo added.
She will also be providing testimony in his case, saying, “I’ve already given my sworn statement to SBU about Gonzalo Lira several months ago and expect to be called as a witness in his prosecution.”
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