Court in Russia's Kaliningrad sentences lawyer to 12 years on treason charge

A court in Russia's western enclave of ​Kaliningrad on Thursday sentenced a ​rights lawyer to 12 years in ‌prison ​on treason charges, with prosecutors saying she passed on sensitive information to Ukraine. The rights group Slovo Zashchite said ‌Maria Bontsler, 66, had worked with a number of defendants accused of political offences in Kaliningrad, a Russian territory on the Baltic Sea bordering Lithuania and Poland.

The rights group ‌quoted Bontsler's lawyers as saying that none of the information cited by ‌prosecutors was secret. It said prosecutors had sought a 15-year sentence. A court statement posted on Telegram did not identify Bontsler by name, but said she had been detained by the FSB intelligence agency ⁠on ​allegations of passing ⁠to Ukraine from 2024 information on security officers in Kaliningrad.

It said prosecutors also alleged she had ⁠provided Ukraine with information about criminal cases in the exclave of interest to Kyiv. She was ​handed a 12-year sentence with an additional year of restrictions on her activity. Slovo ⁠Zashchite said the trial was conducted behind closed doors, with Bontsler and her lawyers prevented from ⁠attending. It ​said 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", or the "public dissemination of deliberately false information about the use of the Armed Forces of ‌the Russian ‌Federation" about the military.