Switch Language

Lawyer Maria Boncler has stated that FSB officer Kirill Takhtov twisted her handcuffed arms during her detention and forcibly unlocked her phone using her fingerprint. RusNews reports this; their correspondent is present at the court hearing on the complaint regarding the initiation of criminal proceedings against the lawyer.

Boncler also said that Takhtov is personally interested in seeing her arrested: “As a lawyer, I became interested in this officer many years ago, when a video was circulated showing him brutally beating Igor Rudnikov. Over the course of my legal work, I have repeatedly encountered torture, planted evidence and falsification of materials. The main person involved in the torture was this very Kirill.”

Boncler has been accused of confidential cooperation with a foreign state (Art. 275.1 of the Criminal Code). Investigators allege that “between 1 August 2024 and 30 September 2024 she established contact via the Telegram messenger with a Security Service of Ukraine officer, Dyachuk.” The Kaliningrad Investigative Committee stated that the lawyer passed on “information about regional security officials, which became known to her through the course of her legal practice.”

New details emerged at today’s hearing. Investigators believe that Dyachuk is a cousin of Ivan Kveselevich, who in April was sentenced to two and a half years in a general regime penal colony under the same article regarding confidential cooperation with a foreign state. The defence suggests that the name “Dyachuk” may have been used as an alias by an FSB officer orchestrating a provocation. Boncler herself insists that she has always shared information about her clients with the media and saw no point in passing it on confidentially to anyone else.

The report does not clarify whether the lawyer provided Kveselevich with professional services. In the criminal case, another person acted as his defence counsel.

Maria Boncler also spoke about the reason for her ill health, for which she underwent treatment in hospital: she links her weakness, shortness of breath and dizziness to side effects from medication that prevent blood clots. She was hospitalised in July in a civilian hospital, where, at night, according to her lawyer’s statements, she was handcuffed to her bed.

Boncler was detained at the end of May and sent to a pre-trial detention centre (SIZO). Employees of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) have exerted continuous pressure on her, not providing adequate medical assistance. For example, Boncler was “forgotten” for an hour on a walking area in pouring rain. For around a month, she was not given vital medication in the detention centre (the lawyer suffers from high blood pressure). She only received medicine several days after suffering a hypertensive crisis during a court hearing.

The woman has also reported a meagre diet in the Kaliningrad detention centre: “Here, for breakfast and lunch, it’s porridge or pasta, and for dinner, potatoes. That means there are simply no fats or proteins, and that’s bad.” She also faced problems getting adequate nutrition in hospital. In addition, Boncler says she only receives three litres of drinking water per week in the detention centre. The only water on sale in the detention centre shop is carbonated, and the tap in the cell runs with non-potable technical water.

15 August The case concerning the complaint about the initiation of criminal proceedings against Maria Boncler has been closed, RusNews reports. The defence considers the complaint premature, as it was filed by a lawyer from whom Boncler has withdrawn her mandate and against whom she has submitted a complaint.

  • Since the start of the war, Maria Boncler has defended local residents of Kaliningrad (a Russian exclave on the Baltic) who participated in protest actions. She was also the lawyer for Igor Baryshnikov, who was sentenced to seven and a half years in a general regime penal colony in a “fake news” case about the Russian army, allegedly motivated by political hatred (clause “d,” part 2, article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). Boncler represented his interests in cooperation with OVD-Info.
  • In 1995, Boncler founded and led the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers of Kaliningrad Region, which protected the rights of conscripts, soldiers and their parents. In 2017, she received her lawyer’s licence and, six years later, was recognised with a Moscow Helsinki Group Award for her legal defence of human rights in court.