Russian court jails rights lawyer for 12 years on treason charge

What the report says

A court in Russia’s Kaliningrad region has sentenced rights lawyer Maria Bontsler, 66, to 12 years in prison on a treason charge, according to Al Jazeera and the rights group Slovo Zashchite. Prosecutors alleged that she passed information to Ukraine beginning in 2024, including details about security officers in Kaliningrad and criminal cases in the exclave that they said were of interest to Kyiv. The court also added a year of restrictions on her activities.

Kaliningrad is a Russian territory on the Baltic Sea between Lithuania and Poland. Al Jazeera reported that the case was heard in closed proceedings. Slovo Zashchite said Bontsler and her lawyers were not allowed to attend the trial in full and that she was only permitted to deliver a final statement. Her lawyers argued that the information cited by prosecutors was not secret and said she had been in poor health while detained.

Prosecutors had sought a 15-year sentence, according to Slovo Zashchite. The article said Bontsler had represented several defendants in politically sensitive cases in Kaliningrad. It also noted broader pressure on lawyers and civil society in Russia since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, including laws targeting criticism of the military and cases against lawyers linked to opposition figures.