MOSCOW, November 26. /TASS/. Ukrainian opposition lawmaker Alexander Dubinsky claims that he has irrefutable proof that American journalist Gonzalo Lira was murdered in captivity and that the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) perpetrated the crime.

"We have come into possession of irrefutable proof that American citizen and blogger Gonzalo Lira was tortured in the Kharkov detention facility. He was beaten in the same way I was in the Kiev detention facility - he was taken to a cell, in putrid condition, where they extorted money from him. When he made this public, he was killed," the lawmaker said on his Telegram channel.

According to Dubinsky, Lira’s captors broke the reporter’s ribs and threatened to gouge his eye out with a toothpick.

"The story of SBU concentration camps and secret prisons. More to come," the lawmaker concluded, insinuating the SBU's role in Lira's death.

The reporter was detained in Kharkov in May last year. He was accused of supporting the Russian special military operation in Ukraine. The SBU claimed that Lira was arrested and given the chance to post bail. Later, the Ukrainian agency claimed that, after Lira was bailed out, he allegedly violated the law and tried to flee to Hungary on a motorcycle. He was jailed in Kharkov and awaited trial.

US TV host Tucker Carlson announced that Lira died in detention, citing information from Lira’s father. According to Carlson, despite the journalist’s US citizenship, the US administration "clearly supported" his detention and torture.

According to the reporter’s memo, provided by his father and published by The Grayzone website, Lira caught pneumonia in October 2023. Lira’s father stated that the prison administration ignored his son’s illness, and tried to conceal it from the family and lawyers. Lira Sr. demanded that the US Embassy in Kiev intervene in the situation. However, the US mission did not oblige, he said. Later, the US Department of State confirmed that Lira had died in Ukrainian detention.