Five activists accused of causing extensive damage at a defence contractor’s German offices are being brought into court behind glass and in handcuffs — a setup their lawyer says breaches European human rights law and undermines the presumption of innocence.
The group, known as the Ulm5, is on trial over an incident last September at the Ulm premises of Elbit Systems, an Israeli-headquartered company that supplies weapons systems to the Israeli Defence Forces. Prosecutors say the defendants smashed items and spray-painted walls, with the damage estimated at around €1 million.
Mathes Breuer, who represents Leandra Daniela Rollo Valenzuela, a Spanish citizen, said the courtroom arrangements prevent the accused from properly participating in their defence.
“Our clients have to watch the trial from behind a glass fence. There is no way to communicate with our clients during the trial,” Mr Breuer said.
He said all five defendants remain handcuffed during proceedings.
“This is a clear violation of Article 6 of the European convention that nobody should be presented in a way that violates the presumption of innocence,” he said.
Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights guarantees the right to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.
Mr Breuer made the remarks at a press conference at the European Parliament in Brussels, where lawyers and relatives of the defendants met with MEPs to discuss the case and the detention conditions.
He also raised doubts about how the court would approach the wider context of the case, including the war in Gaza and the company involved. “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 defendants — activists from Ireland, Germany, Spain and the UK — are members of Palestine Action Germany.
They have shared video footage of the break-in online and say they called police and waited to be detained.
The trial began in Stuttgart in April.
Concerns about the group’s health in custody were also aired in Brussels. Nicky Robertson, the mother of one defendant, 25-year-old British citizen Hannah Hailu, also known as Zo, said some of the activists had lost significant weight.
“One has lost about 10kg in weight,” she said at this morning’s press conference, adding that prison authorities had denied her daughter access to treatment for tonsilitis.
Ms Robertson said the pre-trial regime amounted to “procedural violence”.
She also said a glass screen used during the detention of 32-year-old Dublin man Daniel Tatlow‑Devally “only stopped when Irish parliamentarians intervened”.
Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan, who attended the event, asked whether any of the countries of which the defendants are citizens had raised the detention conditions with German authorities.
Mr Breuer said the Irish State intervened over the use of the glass screen, while a Spanish consulate in Germany made what he described as a “small intervention” for Ms Rollo Valenzuela.
The five have been charged under Section 129 of the German criminal code, a provision that allows authorities to treat them as a threat to society — a designation that has resulted in bail being denied.
None of the defendants has any prior criminal convictions. If convicted, they could face up to five years in prison.
