Key facts
- A Kaliningrad court sentenced rights lawyer Maria Bontsler, 66, to 12 years in prison on treason charges.
- Prosecutors alleged Bontsler passed information on security officers in Kaliningrad to Ukraine from 2024, the court said.
- The court added one year of restrictions on her activity to the 12-year sentence.
- Rights group Slovo Zashchite said Bontsler's lawyers argued none of the information cited by prosecutors was secret.
- Slovo Zashchite said prosecutors had sought a 15-year sentence and that Bontsler was in ill health in detention.
A court in Kaliningrad, Russia's Baltic Sea enclave bordering Lithuania and Poland, sentenced rights lawyer Maria Bontsler to 12 years in prison on treason charges on November 12, with prosecutors alleging she passed sensitive information to Ukraine.
A court statement posted on Telegram did not identify Bontsler by name but said she had been detained by the FSB intelligence agency over allegations of passing information on security officers in Kaliningrad to Ukraine from 2024. The statement said prosecutors also alleged she provided Ukraine with information about criminal cases in the exclave of interest to Kyiv. She received a 12-year sentence plus an additional year of restrictions on her activity.
The rights group Slovo Zashchite said Bontsler, 66, had worked with defendants accused of political offenses in Kaliningrad. The group, quoting her lawyers, said none of the information cited by prosecutors was secret, and that prosecutors had sought a 15-year sentence.
Slovo Zashchite said the trial was conducted behind closed doors, with Bontsler and her lawyers prevented from attending, and that she was allowed only to give a closing statement. The group said she had been in ill health while in detention.
Since the February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia's parliament has approved legislation making public actions aimed at discrediting Russia's army illegal and banning the spread of fake news, which the law describes as the public dissemination of deliberately false information about the use of the Russian armed forces.