ABNA24 - A cross-party group of Irish politicians has urged Dublin to send observers to the trial of five pro-Palestinian activists in Germany and raise concerns over the detention conditions of Irish defendant Daniel Tatlow-Devally.
Sinn Fein politician Mairead Farrell said the delegation attended a hearing in Stuttgart and visited Tatlow-Devally in prison, where she described his conditions as “very harsh,” saying he spends 23 hours a day in his cell with limited visitation.
She called on Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin to discuss the case with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during his upcoming visit.
German prosecutors accuse the so-called Ulm 5 activists of trespassing at a site belonging to "Israeli" arms manufacturer "Elbit" Systems in Ulm last year, damaging equipment and causing around €1 million in losses.
The activists said the action was intended to protest Germany’s support for "Israel" and its aggression against Gaza. Germany is the second biggest supplier of arms to "Israel", after the US.
The defendants have remained defiant throughout the proceedings, with Tatlow-Devally telling the court in May that the group was motivated by “urgent humanitarian concerns” and sought to “make a fuss … in the hope to at least interrupt” "Elbit’s" deliveries to the "Israeli" occupation.
Last month, a British judge imposed lengthy custodial sentences on four Palestine Action activists who smashed up drones and other equipment at an "Elbit" Systems UK factory.
Farrell said German authorities had not allowed the Irish delegation to discuss the case with Tatlow-Devally. “That felt, I suppose, quite unusual for us,” she said.
The politicians also found fault with the trial itself. The defendants, Farrell said, “are basically in a glass cage or behind a glass wall, unable to communicate with their lawyers in … a kind of free manner”.
She said: “One of the accused said that they felt that they couldn’t really participate fully in the trial … because of these barriers that have been put in place.”
Lawyers for the defendants, Berlin-based activists who are British, Irish, German and Spanish citizens, have repeatedly raised the issue of the glass wall with the court, saying it hinders their clients’ right to representation.
The five activists have been charged with trespassing, destruction of property and membership of a black listed organization – Palestine Action Germany – under section 129 of the German criminal code.
That charge means authorities consider the accused a threat to society, allowing them to deny bail, even after the six-month limit of pre-trial detention had passed. If found guilty, they face up to five years in prison.
German court officials said the detention conditions were justified by the seriousness of the charges, while Stuttgart’s higher regional court extended pre-trial detention over alleged flight risks, ruling that bail would not be sufficient.
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