Defense says treatment of Ulm5 violated European law

Behind a glass barrier and in handcuffs, five pro-Palestinian activists accused of attacking the offices of a major defence contractor in Ulm are being tried under conditions their lawyer says breach European human rights law.

The defendants — among them Daniel Tatlow‑Devally, a 32-year-old from Dublin — are accused of smashing property and spray-painting walls at the German premises of Elbit Systems last September. The company is headquartered in Israel and supplies weapons systems to the Israeli Defence Forces.

“Our clients have to watch the trial from behind a glass fence. There is no way to communicate with our clients during the trial,” said Mathes Breuer, who represents one of the accused, Leandra Daniela Rollo Valenzuela, a Spanish national.

He said all five defendants remain handcuffed throughout the court proceedings.

Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights protects the right to a fair trial and enshrines the presumption of innocence until guilt is established.

Mr Breuer made the remarks at a press conference in the European Parliament in Brussels, where lawyers and relatives of the accused met MEPs to raise concerns about the case.

Mr Breuer added: “We therefore have doubts, to say the least, that this court will look at the facts and the situation in Gaza, and the company that is supposed to be the victim here, which has effectively supported the genocide”.

The five defendants, from Ireland, Germany, Spain and the UK, are affiliated with Palestine Action Germany.

They uploaded video of the incident online and say they phoned police and remained at the scene until officers arrived to arrest them.

The trial opened in Stuttgart in April.

Nicky Robertson, whose daughter Hannah Hailu — a 25-year-old British citizen also known as Zo — is among those on trial, said several members of the group had lost weight in custody.

“One has lost about 10kg in weight,” she said during this morning’s press conference, adding that prison officials had refused her daughter treatment for tonsilitis.

Ms Robinson said the group had been subjected to what she called “procedural violence” during the pre-trial period.

She also said the use of a glass screen during Mr Tatlow‑Devally’s detention “only stopped when Irish parliamentarians intervened”.

At the press conference, Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan asked whether any of the states whose citizens are among the defendants had raised the detention conditions with German authorities.

Responding, Mr Breuer said the Irish State had intervened over the use of a glass screen, while the Spanish consulate in Germany had made what he described as a “small intervention” on behalf of his client, Ms Rollo Valenzuela.

The five have been charged under Section 129 of the German criminal code, a designation that classifies them as a threat to society and has led to bail being refused.

Prosecutors have put the cost of the damage from the break‑in at about €1 million.

None of the five has any previous criminal convictions. If convicted, they could face prison sentences of up to five years.

The trial continues in Stuttgart.