Russian court sentences Kaliningrad rights lawyer to 12 years on treason charge

A court in Russia's Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad has sentenced a 66-year-old rights lawyer to 12 years in prison on a treason charge. The sentence was handed down on Thursday in a closed trial, according to a rights group that said the defendant was Maria Bontsler. Prosecutors accused her of passing sensitive information to Ukraine beginning in 2024.

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A court statement posted on Telegram did not name Bontsler, but said she had been detained by the FSB intelligence agency over allegations that she shared information about security officers in Kaliningrad. Prosecutors also alleged that she passed details about criminal cases in the exclave that were of interest to Kyiv. The court added an extra year of restrictions on her activity.

Prosecutors had sought a 15-year sentence, according to the rights group. The rights group said Bontsler's trial was held behind closed doors and that she and her lawyers were prevented from attending, with only a closing statement allowed. Her lawyers argued that none of the information cited by prosecutors was secret, and said she had been in poor health while in detention.

The group also said she had worked with several defendants accused of political offences in Kaliningrad, a Russian territory on the Baltic Sea between Lithuania and Poland. The case comes amid a wider crackdown in Russia since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russian lawmakers have approved laws making public actions seen as discrediting the army illegal and banning the spread of what authorities call false information about the armed forces.

Rights groups and defence lawyers have said such cases have increasingly been used against people involved in politically sensitive work. The sentence also adds to a pattern of pressure on lawyers handling high-profile or politically sensitive cases. In January 2025, a Russian court sentenced three lawyers for the late opposition leader Alexey Navalny to prison terms of between three and a half and five and a half years on extremism charges.

That case was widely viewed as a warning to defence lawyers who take on politically sensitive clients. It is not clear whether Bontsler will appeal or when any appeal might be heard. The court has not publicly detailed the evidence behind the treason finding, and the closed nature of the proceedings limits what can be independently verified.

What remains to be watched is whether the sentence is upheld and whether it signals further prosecutions of lawyers linked to politically sensitive cases in Kaliningrad or elsewhere in Russia.

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