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The UN Human Rights Committee has granted the request of the Centre for International Protection (CPI) and the defenders of the detained lawyer Maria Bonzler to adopt urgent measures, demanding that Russia provide her with the necessary medical assistance, reports the CPI on its page on Facebook.

The UN Committee also suggested changing the pre-trial restrictions imposed on Bonzler.

“In accordance with rule 94 of the Committee’s rules of procedure, the State party was also requested to provide Ms Bonzler with access to adequate medical care and assistance, to ensure that the conditions of her detention comply with the Covenant and international standards, and to consider alternatives to her being held in custody,” the CPI quotes from the Committee’s decision.

Bonzler’s defenders will continue to seek implementation of this decision, including replacing the pre-trial restrictions with a non-custodial measure.

On 10 July, Mariana Katzarova, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Russia, called on the Russian authorities to release Bonzler from the remand centre, end her prosecution, and provide her with the necessary medical care.

Katzarova described the denial of medical assistance and poor conditions in the remand centre as inhumane and degrading treatment, and linked the prosecution of the lawyer to her professional activities—Bonzler had defended Igor Baryshnikov from Kaliningrad in court, who had been sent to a penal colony for anti-war social media posts. A few days before Bonzler’s arrest, the European Union imposed sanctions on the judge in Baryshnikov’s case, the Special Rapporteur noted.

  • On 28 May, security forces detained Maria Bonzler, a lawyer from Kaliningrad, a city in Russia’s westernmost region. The next day she was sent to a remand centre on charges of confidential cooperation with a foreign state (Article 275.1 of the Criminal Code). According to the Investigative Committee, in 2024, Bonzler had provided the security services of an “unfriendly state” with information about personnel of the Kaliningrad Region’s security forces, which she obtained during her legal work.
  • Bonzler and her defence lawyer reported that she was being pressured in Remand Centre No. 1 in Kaliningrad. For some time, she was not given vital medication and was refused its delivery, and her request for vegetarian meals was denied. After a walk in chilly weather, guards “forgot” Bonzler outside and left her there for another hour in pouring rain, even though she asked to be let in, shouted, and knocked on the door. She became ill after this incident. In addition, she received two reprimands in the remand centre: one for attempting to pass a statement to her defence lawyers, and one for failing to keep her hands behind her back.