Ireland urged to put pressure on Germany over pro-Palestinian activist’s trial

Daniel Tatlow-Devally, who is being tried as part of the Ulm 5 group, is spending ‘23 hours a day in his prison cell’. View image in fullscreen Daniel Tatlow-Devally, who is being tried as part of the Ulm 5 group, is spending ‘23 hours a day in his prison cell’. Ireland urged to put pressure on Germany over pro-Palestinian activist’s trial Irish politicians concerned about Daniel Tatlow-Devally’s treatment in jail want Micheál Martin to send observers to Ulm 5 trial A cross-party delegation of Irish politicians has urged Dublin to send observers to a high-security trial of pro-Palestinian activists in Germany and to raise concerns about the Irish defendant’s detention when the German chancellor visits next week. Mairéad Farrell of Sinn Féin, a member of the seven-member delegation, said she and her colleagues had attended the hearing in Stuttgart on Wednesday of the so-called Ulm 5 activists, who are facing charges over an attack on an Israeli arms company. Farrell and two other members of the delegation visited Daniel Tatlow-Devally, the Irish defendant being tried as part of the group, in prison. “I was quite shocked by the treatment that he is receiving. He is 23 hours a day in his cell,” Farrell said, calling on the Irish prime minister, Micheál Martin, to discuss the issue with the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, when he visits on Tuesday. Farrell said: “His cell, from what I understand, is 5x2 metres. He doesn’t have much in his cell, so he’s stuck there for 23 hours a day. He only has an hour of visitation per month, which is obviously incredibly short. “It just seems that there’s very harsh conditions that seem unwarranted for the scale of the fact that these people haven’t harmed people.” German prosecutors say Tatlow-Devally was part of a group of five activists who trespassed on to a site owned by Israel’s Elbit Systems last September in the southern city of Ulm, shouting pro-Palestinian slogans as they destroyed equipment and smashed windows. They allegedly caused about €1m (£850,000) in damage. The activists posted videos online in which they claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was aimed at drawing attention to Germany’s support for Israel and its actions in 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 Israel. 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, after ruling that there was a “terrorist connection” to their offending. 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 a