Russian court jails rights lawyer for 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 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.

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.

Prosecutors also alleged she gave Ukraine information on criminal cases in the exclave that were of interest to Kyiv, the statement said.

She was also given an extra year of restrictions on her activity. Prosecutors had sought 15 years, according to Slovo Zashchite.

Slovo Zashchite said the trial was held behind closed doors, with Bontsler and her lawyers prevented from attending, and that she was allowed only to make a closing statement. It said her lawyers argued that none of the information cited by prosecutors was secret, and that she had been in ill health in detention.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, parliament has approved laws that make public actions aimed at "discrediting" the army illegal and ban the spread of "fake news" about the armed forces.