Maria Bontsler, a 66-year-old lawyer held in pretrial detention in Kaliningrad, went more than a month without being examined by a doctor despite her health problems, her attorney Ilya Sidorov told the Slovo Zashchity project.
According to Sidorov, Bontsler continues to suffer from episodes of hypertension. During a court hearing on September 15, her blood pressure rose to 180/100, prompting an ambulance to be called.
Bontsler has been diagnosed with a heart condition that puts her at risk of stroke. An ambulance had also previously been called after a sharp rise in her blood sugar.
There was no independent confirmation at the time of publication that she had in fact been denied necessary medical care in detention.
Bontsler has been in custody since May 2025. She was initially accused of confidential cooperation with a foreign state, but investigators upgraded the charge to high treason in March 2026.
Investigators allege that Bontsler passed information abroad about members of Russia’s security services that she had learned through her work as a lawyer. Bontsler denies the charges.