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Lawyer Maria Boncler is facing pressure in Kaliningrad Remand Centre No. 1. This was reported in an interview with “Slovo Zashchite” by lawyer Ilya Sidorov, who visited her.

During Boncler’s entire time in the remand centre, not once has her blood pressure been checked, even though she has asked for it every day—she suffers from a hypertensive crisis. She is not being given vital medication, and they are refusing to accept parcels containing it. Boncler is being held in a solitary cell.

“The other day, they simply ‘forgot’ to bring her back inside after her daily one-hour walk, which took place in quite chilly weather. This happened immediately after a downpour. Maria Vladimirovna spent almost another hour soaking in the outdoor yard under heavy rain. She begged to be let in, knocked, shouted, but it was as if no one heard… What inhumanity, what more can I say! She got soaked to the skin, and it’s next to impossible to change and warm up in the cell during the day without breaking the rules, especially since the heating is turned off for the summer. As a result, she developed a severe cough with phlegm, to the point of becoming hoarse, and there is suspicion of bronchitis,” Sidorov said. Boncler was unable to get a doctor’s examination afterwards.

The woman also does not receive vegetarian food, which she needs for religious reasons (Boncler is a follower of Krishnaism). “Sometimes they also refuse—depending on the duty officer’s mood—to accept some of the vegetables and fruit. The same avocado could be let through or thrown away—it’s pure luck,” Sidorov noted.

Furthermore, staff at the remand centre did not allow Boncler to pass copies of her statements to Sidorov. “But this is lawlessness! These are illegal actions, and I immediately filed the appropriate complaints as I was leaving. While we were there, we were both, of course, polite but voiced our objections and did not rush to comply with this arbitrariness—in other words, to the unfounded demand to interrupt the transfer of documents,” Sidorov said. In the end, the FSIN staff seized the documents, and they promised to prepare a disciplinary case against Boncler.

“We are sure this inhumane treatment is simply revenge for her work as a lawyer and human rights defender,” summed up the lawyer.

Boncler has been charged under a criminal case for confidential cooperation with a foreign state, an international or foreign organisation (Article 275.1 of the Criminal Code). “According to investigators, in 2024 the lawyer handed over information to the special services of an unfriendly state about security service employees of the region, information she obtained by virtue of her legal practice,” the Investigative Committee’s press release stated.

The woman was detained at the end of May. On 28 May, law enforcement officers visited three lawyers at once in Kaliningrad—a major city on the Baltic Sea: Boncler, Roman Morozov, and Ekaterina Selizarova. All of them defended Igor Baryshnikov, who was convicted over anti-war posts.

Formally, only a premises inspection took place at Morozov’s. The judge’s ruling authorising the search stated that Morozov was Boncler’s “partner.” The document also noted that there was “suspicion” of treason against Boncler. Several FSB officers conducted the search at Morozov’s, with a Bar Association representative present. The officers seized the lawyer’s phone and hard drives from his home computer. According to Morozov, after the search the investigator questioned him about any involvement with “Memorial.”

26 June Maria Boncler suffered a hypertensive crisis during a court hearing. This was reported by the Telegram channel “Slovo Zashchite.”

According to lawyer Ilya Sidorov, Boncler was feeling unwell even that morning in the remand centre. She was given two blood pressure tablets, but by the time the hearing began they had worn off. The defendant lay down on a bench during court and remained there for 35 minutes until a medic arrived. The hearing was postponed to another day.

In a conversation with SOTAvision, the lawyer linked Boncler’s condition to the conditions in the remand centre and dietary restrictions imposed on her illnesses. He noted that isolator staff have long refused to provide Boncler with food purchased for her by relatives from the FSIN shop.

Before the hearing, Maria Boncler told journalists that she had already received two reprimands in the remand centre: for not keeping her hands behind her back while walking and for attempting to pass a statement to the lawyers. She also reported that the staff reproached her for vegetarianism and would not allow her to shop in the store.

You can support Boncler by writing to her via the “Vestočka” service or by sending a paper letter to:

236022, Kaliningrad, 2-4 Ushakov Street, FSIN Remand Centre No. 1 for Kaliningrad Region, Boncler Maria Vladimirovna, born 1960.

  • Since the start of the war, Boncler, Morozov and Selizarova have defended Kaliningrad residents involved in protest actions. They were also lawyers for Igor Baryshnikov, who was sentenced to seven and a half years in a general-regime penal colony on charges of “fake news” about the Russian army on the basis of political hatred (para. “d” part 2 art. 207.3 of the Criminal Code). Boncler represented his interests in cooperation with OVD-Info.
  • In 2022, Boncler herself was fined under a protocol for “discrediting” the army (part 1 art. 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code). The grounds for this were statements she made in court in cases of those detained at anti-war protests. In particular, her phrases: “Russia attacked Ukraine” and “It’s unclear what our state is doing. It attacked 16 oblasts of Ukraine. For what purpose? Russia has already been banned from using Article 51 of the UN Charter. It’s not clear what they’re trying to achieve.”
  • In 1995, Boncler founded and headed the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers of Kaliningrad Region. The organisation worked to protect the rights of conscripts, military personnel and their relatives. In 2017, Boncler obtained her status as a lawyer, and six years later she became a laureate of the Moscow Helsinki Group Prize for defending human rights in court.