The Kaliningrad court handed down the 12-year sentence alongside an additional year of activity restrictions after prosecutors accused Bontsler of transmitting case details and information on security officers to Kyiv. Her defense maintained that none of the shared information was classified, while the rights group Slovo Zashchite revealed that Bontsler and her counsel were excluded from the closed-door proceedings until closing statements. This prosecution follows previous legal actions against defense attorneys, such as the January 2025 sentencing of three lawyers who represented the late opposition figure Alexey Navalny.
Key points
Russian authorities are increasingly prosecuting defense attorneys who handle sensitive p…: Russian authorities are increasingly prosecuting defense attorneys who handle sensitive political cases and represent dissidents.
Legal measures enacted since the February 2022 invasion have severely criminalized dissen…: Legal measures enacted since the February 2022 invasion have severely criminalized dissent and perceived assistance to Ukraine.
Bontsler faced severe procedural restrictions during her trial despite experiencing healt…: Bontsler faced severe procedural restrictions during her trial despite experiencing health issues while detained in Kaliningrad.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
Prosecutors say the woman shared security details with Ukraine, while her lawyers argue the information wasn’t secret.
A court in Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad has sentenced a 66-year-old rights lawyer to 12 years in prison for treason, after prosecutors accused her of passing sensitive information to Ukraine.
The court imposed the sentence on Thursday on Maria Bontsler, according to the rights group Slovo Zashchite, which said she had worked with a number of defendants accused of political offences in Kaliningrad.
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The territory sits on the Baltic Sea between Lithuania and Poland.
A court statement posted on Telegram did not name her, but said she had been detained by the FSB intelligence agency on allegations of passing information to Ukraine beginning in 2024 about security officers in Kaliningrad.
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