https://www.declassifieduk.org/uk-citizens-subjected-to-show-trial-in-germany-lawyers-say/
Two Britons are among activists being tried in Germany after targeting an Israeli weapons factory last year
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.
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Continues at https://www.declassifieduk.org/uk-citizens-subjected-to-show-trial-in-germany-lawyers-say/
