The father of an Irish activist detained in Germany for taking part in a protest against an Israeli arms manufacturer has said he is concerned about his son’s treatment in custody.
Daniel Tatlow-Devally, 32, from Dublin, is one of five people facing trial in Stuttgart for their role in a so-called direct action attack on an Elbit Systems base in Ulm last September.
Each member of the group known as the Ulm Five has been charged with being part of a criminal organisation. For this reason they have been denied bail and are being held in high-security detention, with limited access to lawyers and family.
The five also charged with trespassing and criminal damage, as well as using banned symbols that prosecutors say are linked to Hamas.
Their first hearing on Wednesday was suspended after defence lawyers protested, saying they have not been able to speak to their clients.
Daniel’s father Connor Devally has spoken out against the conditions in which his son is being held. He said Daniel spends 23 hours a day in his cell and can see visitors for only half an hour every two weeks. “If you dress somebody up like Hannibal Lecter for the media or the public, they become dangerous in those eyes,” he told Irish broadcaster RTE.
He said the group was “just a bunch of kids” who were being unfairly demonised by being kept in high security. “If you put people behind screens that are usually for the mafia or for organisations that use arms and explosions to wrest their freedom … it makes them look like that,” he added.
He said he had not been able to have physical contact with his son when visiting, or speak to him “like a dad would” due to constant monitoring. “For the first meetings he was behind a complete screen,” Mr Devally said. “There was no touching him, of course. And there are two policemen and an interpreter present.
“You’re not allowed to talk to him about the action. I’ve never been allowed to say, ‘what the hell were you up to', or 'where did you think this would bring you’, or anything like a dad would say to his son.”
Letters sent took five weeks to reach the 32 year old, because they need to be read by the prosecution first.
Mr Devally said: “They translate it at leisure, [then] finally, he gets it. So we’ve had no proper communication.”
The five are accused of being part of the Palestine Action Germany group – inspired by Palestine Action in the UK.
The latter was proscribed by the British government last year after a series of demonstrations and activists breaking into an RAF airbase, where they damaged two military planes.
The British High Court found the Palestine Action ban to be unlawful last year. The government is challenging the court ruling.
