The trial of five activists accused of attacking the German subsidiary has begun Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems in September 2025.
This Monday (May 11), the trial continues, after the end of April in the court in Stuttgart it didn't even start properly. Namely, the security measures are high, and the defense lawyers objected that in such conditions in the courtroom they cannot confidentially communicate with clients, writes DW.
Elbit Systems is one of the largest Israeli manufacturers weapons with subsidiaries in several countries. The company manufactures drones as well as command, surveillance and telecommunications equipment for several armed forces, including Germany's Bundeswehr.
At the same time, Germany is the second largest supplier of weapons to Israel.
The defendants, who have British, Irish, German and Spanish citizenship, are charged with trespassing, destruction of property, membership in a criminal organization and using symbols of terrorist organizations. Since their arrest on September 8, 2025, they have been held in separate prisons, and face several years in prison.
Footage posted online allegedly shows activists breaking into the offices of an Elbit Systems subsidiary in Ulm, southern Germany, damaging several computers and other technical equipment and scrawling slogans on the walls, including "child killers." According to the defense, when the on-site security alerted the police, the activists remained awaiting arrest.
The prosecution perceives the group as a "criminal organization"
The group is being tried under Article 129 of the Criminal Code, which prohibits the establishment and membership of criminal organizations. That article has been controversial in recent years because prosecutors have increasingly used it against other protest movements, such as the climate group Last Generation.
Amnesty International and others claim that German prosecutors are abusing it. "It runs the risk of equating legitimate civic engagement with organized crime," Paula Zimmerman, spokeswoman for Amnesty International Germany, told DW.
The State Prosecutor's Office in Stuttgart argued that the application of Article 129 is legitimate, considering that the group "Palestine Action Germany", to which according to their statements the accused belong, was declared a "criminal organization" by several courts before the trial.
"This legal interpretation has been adopted in all the decisions made by various courts in this case so far - the most recent one was made by the Higher Regional Court in Stuttgart," read the answers to DW.
Defense attorneys told DW that the prosecution did not prove that "Palestine Action Germany" even existed as a formal organization.
The defense intends to argue that the Ulm Five, as they are now called, tried to stop the genocide that Israel is carrying out in Gaza through "self-defense assistance."
German media, citing Elbit Systems spokespeople, reported that the facility in Ulm was used for telecommunications parts sold to the German military.
"That's not true," said Mateš Breuer, the defense attorney for defendant Leandra R. "We have evidence that the research being conducted in Ulm is important for the production of drones. We have evidence that parts from Ulm are being supplied to Elbit's facilities in Israel - technical components for tanks and drones."
He said that evidence will be presented to the court during the trial.
Postponed procedure
The trial took place in the high-security court at Stampfheim prison, the same courtroom where the infamous trial of left-wing terrorists from the Red Army Faction (RAF) took place in the 1970s. The defense and several observers in the German media interpreted the choice of venue as an attempt to portray the five as terrorists.
The trial itself began with delays at the end of April, when 11 defense lawyers refused to sit down because their clients were placed behind a glass partition, which prevented direct contact with the lawyers. That, the lawyers said, was a clear breach of confidentiality.
"At one point I had to shout through the glass," Breuer told DW. "There was no way we could talk unsupervised. In theory, anything my client would talk to me would be heard by the court."
"I've never had this problem before," added Breuer, who said he had written to the court a month before the hearing seeking clarification on those issues, but had not received a response. "It was not a court hearing, it was a show to portray our clients as terrorists. This court is not neutral."
After a two-hour break, the judge completely postponed the proceedings, and it is not yet clear how this dilemma will be resolved.
Speaking outside the courtroom on April 27, Josie, the partner of defendant VK, said the state's measures were disproportionate. "These are five activists who carried out this action targeting only material possessions," Josie told DW. "They didn't try to hurt anyone, they're not a threat to society, they don't deserve to be behind glass."
Conditions of detention
The partners and relatives of the accused say that the German state is trying to make an example of them with unusually long and strict detention.
In a statement emailed to DW, the Higher Regional Court in Stuttgart said the law allows the court to extend pretrial detention beyond the prescribed six months under certain conditions.
"The higher provincial court based its decision, among other things, on the existence of a risk of flight, which would not be sufficiently mitigated even by posting bail," the statement said.
"Visits and telecommunications require approval and are monitored if the conditions for such an order are met."
The prosecutor, on the other hand, stated that he did not ask for any special detention conditions. "These are standard restrictions under German criminal procedure law that accompany a court order for pre-trial detention," the spokesman said.
But friends and family of the accused are not satisfied. "I think it's all completely unjustified," Josie said. "The five of them carried out this action and waited for the police to come. They did not resist arrest, did not hide their faces, did not try to escape. The action was clearly a political statement. All of them have studies, work or other obligations in Berlin. They have no incentive to flee the country. They were ready to take responsibility for their actions all the time."
The International Court of Justice has been investigating Israel's actions in Gaza since the Republic of South Africa in December 2023 brought a case before the United Nations' highest court claiming it was genocide. Israel's conduct in the war was assessed as genocide by many international human rights organizations and the United Nations commission. Israel denies this.
Source: DW
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