Berlin, Germany – The trial of five European citizens accused of attacking a factory linked to Israeli arms maker Elbit Systems in Germany is set to begin on Monday.
The case is seen by some as a major escalation in Germany’s crackdown on the Palestine solidarity movement.
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According to prosecutors, on the morning of September 8, 2025, workers broke into the factory in the southern city of Ulm and began destroying office equipment while filming themselves.
Elbit Systems is Israel’s largest private defense contractor and plays a central role in the war in Gaza. It is believed to provide about 85 percent of the combat drones and ground-based equipment used by the Israeli military. The factory in Ulm is operated by a wholly owned subsidiary of Elbit Systems.
Similar attacks on Elbit facilities have also occurred in other European countries, including the Czech Republic and especially the United Kingdom, where the Palestine Action protest group was founded, whose main target is Elbit Systems.
In the case of the so-called “Ulm Five”, the Stuttgart Chief Prosecutor’s Office is investigating allegations of property damage and considers the activists members of a criminal organization. Arguing for a longer prison sentence, prosecutors are asking the court to consider the “anti-Semitic motivations and motives” of the raid on the arms manufacturer, according to the indictment obtained by Al Jazeera.
Lawyers for the activists argue that the alleged incident was “an act of civil disobedience” intended to stop actions that violate international law.
“No one was injured,” he said in a recent statement. “None of the defendants have a prior criminal record. None used violence against any individual.”
Matthias Schuster, the lawyer for one of the activists, V Kovarbašić, told Al Jazeera that all the accused were involved in pro-Gaza protests and that he had “witnessed the unsuccessful effort to hold the Israeli and German governments accountable for their role in the genocide by both international and German law”.
A psychological effect: seven months in isolation
For more than seven months, activists holding Irish, British, Spanish and German citizenships have been held in high-security detention centers across Germany.
In prison, his lawyers say, he spends up to 23 hours a day in isolation, and there are strict limits on visits. Every phone call and meeting is monitored.
The group includes 32-year-old Irish national Daniel Tatlow-Develey; 25-year-old Briton Zoe Hailu; Cro Trixie, who is also British and 25; Kovarbasik, a 29-year-old German national; and Leandra Rollo, a 40-year-old Spanish national.
According to legal documents seen by Al Jazeera, Tatlow-Deville has been refused access to books by authors such as Nelson Mandela by prison authorities. The ban was later overturned by a court.
Tatlow-Deville, who recently completed a master’s degree in Berlin, expressed concerns about her health in a letter read at an event in Berlin in late March. His mother told Al Jazeera that she was concerned about the conditions and solitary confinement, adding, “It feels like torture”.
“However, Daniel lived with another human being for five months without any physical contact,” he said.
Tatlow-Davley’s defense attorney, Benjamin Dasburg, believes that the pretrial detention order was unlawful from the beginning.
He said, “There was not the slightest flight risk. Our clients were waiting for the police to arrive at the scene, although they could have easily escaped.” But the real issue goes even deeper, according to Dusburg: “Our clients have touched a raw nerve in the issue of the state of Germany. Now the state wants to make an example of them.”
Germany has long faced global criticism for continuing arms exports to Israel, second only to the United States. Nicaragua has taken Germany to the International Court of Justice over continued arms exports to Israel during the war on Gaza.
‘Significant’ concerns: Amnesty
Prosecutors’ charges to cover property damage – including red paint on the building, as well as destroyed computers and sanitation facilities – were originally estimated at 200,000 euros ($234,000). But now his sum exceeds one million euros ($1.17 million). Elbit Systems declined to comment on the matter.
The activists are being prosecuted under Section 129 – a “criminal organization” law that has its roots in the political turmoil of the Prussian era. Usually reserved for “terrorists” and organized crime groups, this legal statute has recently been applied to political and climate activists. Prosecutors argue that the activists are members of “Palestine Action Germany”, a classification that enables the harsh legal conditions they now face.
Amnesty International looks at “significant human rights and rule-of-law concerns,” Paula Zimmerman, an expert on freedom of expression and assembly at the NGO, told Al Jazeera.
By prosecuting political opposition under this law, he said, “legitimate civil society participation is being equated with organized crime”. The actions of the security services have an “intimidating effect” and prevent people from “exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly.”
Activists have also been accused of “using symbols of unconstitutional and terrorist organizations”.
In the past, some German courts had ruled that the phrase “From the river to the sea – Palestine will be free” is a symbol of Hamas. The indictment explains the use of the words “child killer” and “48” in reference to Israel’s officially recognized territory as anti-Semitic.
The General Prosecutor’s Office in Stuttgart told Al Jazeera that it “considers there is sufficient suspicion that the crime was motivated by anti-Semitic intent”. However, it also states that the evidence will be evaluated “once the evidence is presented during the trial”.
The Interior Ministry of Baden-Württemberg sent Al Jazeera general statements on anti-Semitism and the Elbit system, but said that “the graffiti at the crime scene suggests a political motive”.
The ministry cited Palestine Action’s listing as a banned “terrorist” organization in the UK, without acknowledging the British High Court’s ruling in February 2026 that the designation was disproportionate and unlawful.
A higher administrative court ruling on prison conditions obtained by Al Jazeera shows a sentence of more than two years is likely. The trial is scheduled to end in July. The location in Stuttgart-Stamheim is symbolic. In the 1970s, members of the far-left Red Army faction were convicted in one of Germany’s largest trials.
Since October 7, 2023, German authorities have responded harshly to anti-war protests. In addition to bans and prosecution of slogans and symbols, videos of police violence have repeatedly gone viral. A few weeks ago, protests disrupted a Berlin event at which Francesca Albanese, the UN special envoy for the occupied Palestinian territories, was speaking. Unlike Britain, Germany has not seen widespread protests in support of actions such as attacks on weapons factories.
