Translated material
And learn the matter by heart
Lawyer Maria Bonzler faces a new charge - now of treason
Maria Bonzler. Photo: SOTAvision *
On March 5, Denis Dolgosheev, an investigator for particularly important cases at the Investigative Committee’s department for the Kaliningrad region, announced to lawyer Maria Bontzler and her defenders that the investigative actions had ended. At the same time, the investigation came to the conclusion that Bonzler’s actions contained elements of Art. 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (high treason), which will be incriminated against her instead of Article 275.1, which appeared in the investigation (cooperation on a confidential basis with a foreign state, international or foreign organization).
Article 275.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for a maximum penalty of up to 8 years, and Art. 275 - from 12 to 20 years or life imprisonment. Article 275 along with Art. 275.1 appeared in the resolution of the chairman of the regional court, who in June 2025, at the request of the deputy head of the FSB Directorate, authorized the conduct of operational search activities against Bonzler and her colleagues. This created the opportunity for the investigation to constantly threaten her with reclassification of the charges to a more serious offense.
Bonzler was detained a few days after judge Olga Balandina, who sentenced the seriously ill Igor Baryshnikov to actual imprisonment, was added to the EU sanctions list. Along with Bonzler, a search was also carried out at her colleague Roman Morozov, who participated in the defense of Baryshnikov. Ekaterina Selizarova, Baryshnikov’s third lawyer, managed to leave the Russian Federation.
According to Bonzler's sons, who maintain relatively constant contact with her, Maria was offered to testify against other lawyers, but she refused to do so.
The materials of the case are classified, but we can assume that Bonzler is now charged not with an isolated episode of “confidential cooperation”, but with the systematic collection of information about persecution in the Russian Federation for political reasons and the transfer of this information to international human rights organizations. In fact, this is the usual work of human rights activists, which until recently was considered completely legal, but in recent years in the Russian Federation, in one way or another, all organizations that collected and disseminated such information were destroyed, in particular, the human rights center “Memorial”**, with which Bonzler collaborated.
Maria, who suffers from a serious heart disease, remains in the pre-trial detention center, where she will get acquainted with the case materials. Since they have not been declassified, she will be prohibited from making extracts and returning to the volumes she has viewed. The defense will demand the declassification of at least part of the documents and expert opinions on the basis of which Bonzler will be charged in court.