Two British nationals are among five activists who were forcibly brought into a Stuttgart courtroom by police on Wednesday after statements they wished to read were seized from them.
This was the latest escalation in a case that their lawyers have described as a “show trial” and is part of a broader crackdown on those who take direct action for Palestine.
Zo Hailu and Crow Tricks, both British citizens based in Berlin, were arrested last September alongside three others from Spain, Ireland, and Germany following an action at an Elbit Systems facility in Ulm, near Stuttgart.
They are charged with trespass, destruction of property and membership of a criminal organisation, Palestine Action Germany, under section 129 of the German criminal code.
Elbit Systems, which has a growing number of factories across Europe, supplies 85 percent of the drones and land-based military equipment used by the Israeli military. The company’s site in Ulm was recently revealed to have been exporting targeting equipment to Israel by Irish investigative news site The Ditch . Ulm 5 Known as the Ulm 5, the activists have been held in pre-trial detention across five separate prisons in south-west Germany for eight months, exceeding Germany’s standard six-month limit.
Last week, without prior warning, the court issued a further 28 hearing dates beyond the 16 originally announced, extending the trial – which began on Monday – to January 2027.
By the time any verdict is reached, they will have spent 16 months in prison.
The defence lawyers have argued that the full force of the state is being brought to bear on the defendants because of the nature of their action. Mimi Tatlow-Golden, mother of co-defendant Daniel Tatlow-Devally, said: “In March, we expressed our fears that the Ulm 5 would face a show trial. During the hearing on 11 May, a defence lawyer also described proceedings as such – a Schauprozess [show trial].”
She said it was time the governments of the defendants “woke up to these egregious violations against their citizens in an EU country”. “Once again we call for international trial monitoring to ensure the Ulm 5’s constitutional and human rights are upheld.” RELATED Palestine Action ban risked activists’ right to fair trial, documents... The mother of Zo Hailu, Nicky Robertson, said treatment had been “extreme”, with Zo “stripped naked on arrest and given an adult nappy to wear for six hours”.
In the UK, scores of Palestine Action activists associated with a raid on Elbit Systems in Bristol in August 2024 were held in pre-trial detention for over a year, with several of them also engaging in a hunger strike in prison.
The Brize Norton 5, accused of breaking into an RAF base in Gloucestershire and spraying paint into the engines of two Voyager aircraft, are now facing pre-trial detention of around 18 months with their hearing not scheduled until January 2027.
Germany is Israel’s second-largest arms supplier after the United States, and has provided key diplomatic support to Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz publicly assured Netanyahu that Germany would find ways for him to visit without facing arrest under the International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant.
Documents obtained under freedom of information laws also revealed Germany coordinated its International Court of Justice (ICJ) testimony with Israel.
Meanwhile, a survey from August 2025 found 65 percent of Germans believed Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza, and 59 percent considered its military action genocide. Dragged into court On Wednesday, the Ulm defendants refused to enter the courtroom after statements they wished to read were seized from them. The statements outlined their reasoning for taking the action, in wanting to disrupt the supply chain of weaponry being sent Israel as it commits genocide in Gaza.
Vi Kovarbasic gripped their chair and refused to stand, and was wheeled in. Daniel Tatlow-Devally, Zo Hailu, Crow Tricks, and Leandra Rollo were carried in by officers holding their arms and legs, still handcuffed.
Nuala Tricks, Crow’s mother, and Nicky Robertson, Zo’s mother, said what had happened was “another shocking and disappointing show trial for the Ulm 5”.
“In peaceful protest at the unfair trial conditions, the five refused to walk into the glass cage – they were wheeled, carried and dragged in, still handcuffed. The morning was dominated by the judge continuing to reject all motions put forward by the defence,” they said. “These included the inability to communicate confidentially with their lawyers, defendants not being allowed to sit with their lawyers, and the request for the judge to recuse herself due to her very obvious bias”, they added.
The scenes were witnessed by family members in the public gallery, who have attended all hearings throughout proceedings. RELATED UK leaders have betrayed those who fought in WW2 A freedom of information request revealed that the presiding judge never sought to use a standard courtroom belonging to her own regional court. Instead, she placed proceedings in a high-security room belonging to the higher regional court without releasing any security assessment.
At every hearing, the five have been brought in while handcuffed and placed in a bulletproof glass cage. The defence has repeatedly argued the set up violates their presumption of innocence and prevents confidential communication with their lawyers. The defence has also identified what they say are a cascade of constitutional violations: no defence note-taker has been permitted despite German courts producing no verbatim transcript, defendants unable to take their own notes; inadequate simultaneous translation.
On the first day, the presiding judge also refused to grant defence counsel the right to even speak at all. On the second, she granted them the floor – then summarily rejected every single application.
The five have been repeatedly denied bail, despite posing no credible flight risk, and the press has been barred from photographing them until the end of the trial.
The defence has filed motions for recusal of all five judges as a result of the conditions of the trial. Defence counsel Benjamin Düsberg said the State Security Chamber “continues to reject basic constitutional standards” and that defence lawyers “will not stoop to being party to the sham legitimation of a show trial”.
The trial continues on Friday.
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