Martin Oppenheimer
Posted August 25, 2026
In the July-August Against the Current, Annette Ohme-Reinicke discussed the case of the Ulm Five as part of her story on repression in Germany. Here is an update on the trial of the Ulm Five.
THE ACCUSED ARE brought in one by one in handcuffs accompanied by a guard who stays and stands behind each prisoner. They are seated behind a glass partition. They are not permitted to talk to one another. Their lawyers communicate with the prisoners via microphones. Confidentiality between defendants and their lawyers is not feasible. The defendant’s attorneys have repeatedly objected to these conditions.
In another courtroom different defendants being charged with belonging to a terrorist organization and firing machine-guns at a police station in which two officers were injured do not face such restrictions. Those accused are able to confer during the trial in private and there is no glass partition.
The presiding judge in the first case considered the defense objection irrelevant, stating that she was the decider about her court’s processes. After numerous protests, handcuffs were removed during for court appearances. Cuffs with padding were provided after complaints about bruises that were clearly visible to observers. The courtroom is in a maximum security prison called Stuttgart-Stammheim, Germany.
Who are these defendants? Desperados, bank robbers, kidnappers, murderers like the members of the Red Army Faction (RAF) who were on trial in this very prison fifty years ago? No, they are five young people of different nationalities who broke into a factory on September 8, 2025 that provides weapons to Israel.
They smashed equipment and did other damage to the tune of 1.4 million euros ($1.6 million). They did some graffiti including pro-Palestinian slogans, and carried a sign that read “Palestine Action.” No-one was injured. They made no attempt to flee and said they were engaging in civil disobedience justified by German and international laws that allow for emergency actions to prevent war crimes, in this case the continuing genocide in Gaza.
The factory is part of Elbit Systems, an Israeli subsidiary in Ulm, Germany. It makes high-tech weapons systems under a German-Israel contract.
The Ulm Five “Show Trial”
The “Ulm Five” are charged with forming a criminal organization (this refers to Palestine Action), trespass, property damage, but notably not terrorism. The trial began on April 27, 2025 after nearly nine months of pre-trial confinement. No bail was allowed. The defendants are held in solitary confinement twenty-three hours per day. They are allowed one hour of visitation per month. The trial is expected to continue until January, 2027. The Ulm Five face five years imprisonment.
The accused in this case are Daniel Tatlow-Devally from Ireland, Zo Hailu and Crow Tricks from the U.K., Leandra Rollo from Spain, and Vi Kovarbasic from Germany. Tatlow-Devally has caught the attention of prominent Irish human rights activists. Seven Irish MPs have attended the trial. They were forbidden to take notes and their pens were sequestered. They charged the proceedings with being biased and a “show trial.”
Eighteen members of the European Parliament have sent an open letter to the President of the European Commission expressing concern about the prisoners’ conditions of detention, their access to a fair trial, and the impartiality of the judges.
Many kinds of testimony have been declared irrelevant or inadmissible including facts about Elbit and quotes from the International Criminal Court concerning Israel. Since the defense is based on the motives for the action, it essentially gags the defendants.
The setting of the trial, reminiscent of the RAF case, is clearly meant to portray the Ulm Five as dangerous threats subversive of public order. This has backfired. Supporters have come by bus from as far away as Berlin to observe the trial. As the defendants are led into the courtroom their supporters stand and applaud them, and sing in solidarity.
The case has been covered in the German press. The proceedings have been suspended several times as the defendants’ attorneys objected to what were clearly biased decisions from the court.
Today Germany’s extensive internal security apparatus prioritizes pro-Palestinian activities. Even people wearing the “Palestinian” scarf have been brutalized by the police. Several international bodies including the UN Human Rights Council have criticized such suppression. Meanwhile the ethno-nationalist fascist-adjacent Alternative for Germany party, a clear danger to the constitutional order, goes undisturbed.
Martin Oppenheimer has been following German affairs since he was three years old, the year Hitler came to power.
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