Kaliningrad lawyer Maria Boncler was taken away from a court hearing by ambulance.

Kaliningrad lawyer Maria Boncler was taken from a court hearing on pre-trial detention by ambulance. This was reported by the “Word to the Defence” Telegram channel.

Boncler fell ill during the court hearing, where investigators had requested that her detention be extended. Her son called an ambulance and she was taken to a civilian hospital. The Leningradsky District Court in Kaliningrad declared a recess in the hearing.

Before every court session, Boncler’s health condition deteriorates, and her blood pressure is reduced with medication without any medical supervision, simply so she can physically appear in court, quoted her lawyer, Ilya Sidorov, as reported by Rusnews.

Boncler is accused under a criminal case of confidential cooperation with a foreign state or with an international or foreign organisation (Article 275.1 of the Russian Criminal Code). The Investigative Committee’s press release said: “According to the investigation, in 2024 the lawyer passed information about regional security officials, which she learned about in her professional capacity, to intelligence agencies of a hostile state.” The case is being heard behind closed doors and Boncler has signed a non-disclosure agreement, so the details of the charges are unknown.

The lawyer was detained at the end of May and sent to a pre-trial detention centre (SIZO). She has regularly faced pressure from Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) employees and has not received adequate medical care. On one occasion, Boncler was “forgotten” on the outdoor exercise yard for an hour during pouring rain. For about a month, she was not given vital medications in the detention centre—Boncler suffers from high blood pressure, and she was only given her medicine several days after a hypertensive crisis during a court hearing.

Boncler has also reported the poor diet in the Kaliningrad pre-trial detention centre: “Here, for breakfast and lunch it’s porridge or pasta, for dinner potatoes. So there’s absolutely no fats or proteins, which is bad.” In addition, she is only given three litres of drinking water per week. The detention centre shop only sells sparkling water, and the tap in the cell provides only technical water, unfit for drinking.

• Since the start of the war, Maria Boncler has defended Kaliningrad residents who took part in protest actions. She was also the lawyer for Igor Baryshnikov, who was sentenced to seven and a half years in a general regime colony for a case of “fakes” about the Russian army, motivated by political hatred (paragraph “d,” part 2, Article 207.3 of the Russian Criminal Code). Boncler represented him in cooperation with OVD-Info.
• In 1995, Boncler founded and headed the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers of the Kaliningrad Region, which worked to protect the rights of conscripts, military personnel, and their families. In 2017 Boncler became a qualified lawyer, and six years later was awarded the Moscow Helsinki Group Prize for defending human rights in court.