The charges against lawyer Maria Bonzler have been toughened: she now faces up to 20 years in prison.

The charges against lawyer Maria Bonzler have been toughened—she is now accused under the article on “state treason” (Article 275 of the Criminal Code), and faces up to 20 years in prison. This was reported by “Slovo Zashchite.”

“The investigation into the case of lawyer Maria Bonzler has been completed. Maria Vladimirovna and her defence lawyers will be able to familiarise themselves with the criminal case files, starting, as the investigators said, from 12 March,” said her lawyer, Ilya Sidorov.

Initially, Bonzler was accused under the article on confidential cooperation with a foreign state (Article 275.1 of the Criminal Code), under which she had been held since her detention on 28 May 2025. The Investigative Committee in Kaliningrad wrote that the lawyer had handed over “information about employees of the region’s law enforcement bloc, which she became aware of in the course of her work as a lawyer.”

According to Sidorov, as before, Bonzler is essentially accused because of allegedly discovered correspondence in Telegram with a certain “SBU officer” named Dyachuk. “Thus, the new charge of 'state treason' is not based on any new facts or circumstances discovered during the investigation, but solely on the results of an examination carried out by the Kaliningrad FSB department. Everything relies entirely and exclusively on the prejudiced opinion of the FSB officers,” the lawyer added.

Sidorov also noted that Bonzler’s phone was admitted as physical evidence, but that access was obtained only after Bonzler had been tortured upon arrest. “During her arrest, Bonzler’s arms were twisted behind her back even while in handcuffs, her fingers were wrenched, causing severe physical pain. This is a form of torture,” he said.

Bonzler was detained at the end of May and sent to a pre-trial detention centre. She is regularly pressured by FSIN officers, who do not provide proper medical assistance. For example, Bonzler was “forgotten” outside for an hour in the exercise yard during pouring rain. For about a month, she was denied essential medication in the pre-trial detention centre (she suffers from high blood pressure). She was only given the medicine a few days after a hypertensive crisis during a court hearing.

• Since the start of the war, Maria Bonzler defended people from Kaliningrad, a major city on the Baltic Sea, 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 colony under the article on “fake news” about the Russian army based on political hatred (para. “d,” part 2, article 207.3 of the Criminal Code). Bonzler represented him in cooperation with OVD-Info.
• In 1995, Bonzler founded and headed the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers of the Kaliningrad Region. The organisation worked to defend the rights of conscripts, service members, and their families. In 2017, Bonzler obtained her lawyer’s qualification, and six years later she became a laureate of the Moscow Helsinki Group Prize for her defence of human rights in court.