THE TRIAL against five pro-Palestinian activists that began in Stuttgart, Germany, today is the latest instance of Western states using repressive legal powers against “those who refuse to be bystanders to genocide,” a human rights group has warned.

The five activists — Daniel Tatlow-Devally, 32, from Ireland; Zo Hailu, 25, and Crow Tricks, 25, from Britain; Vi Kovarbasic, 29, from Germany, and Leandra Rollo, 40, from Spain — were arrested last September in Ulm, south-west Germany, after allegedly vandalising the offices of the infamous Israeli arms manufactures Elbit Systems.

Prosecutors say that the five broke into Elbit Systems’ premises early on September 8 2025, and caused an estimated €200,000 (£173K) worth of damage to the arms manufacturer by smashing up office equipment with axes.

The group allegedly filmed the action and posted it online before calling the police and waiting to be arrested.

The Ulm 5 have been held in high-security detention under terrorism charges since their arrest. The group’s lawyers say their clients have spent up to 23 hours a day in isolation and had their phone calls and visits heavily monitored.

“What is happening in Stuttgart is part of a co-ordinated crackdown across Western states on those who refuse to be bystanders to genocide,” said Cage International’s head of public advocacy Anas Mustapha.

“We have seen it in Britain, in Germany, and multiple EU countries: terrorism-adjacent laws, punishing pre-trial conditions, a judiciary that signals its verdict before the trial begins, and politicians who intervene to ensure it does.

“The Ulm 5 acted against an arms manufacturer supplying a genocide. Germany’s response has been to imprison them for nearly a year.”

Benjamin Dusberg, lawyer for one of the Ulm 5, said: “We intend to use the proceedings to essentially turn the tables. We want to show that it’s not our clients who should be on the hook, but rather the Elbit bosses, who continued delivering weapons even during the genocide.”

Amnesty International Germany’s legal adviser Paula Zimmermann told Al Jazeera today that by treating the Ulm 5 as terrorists, “legitimate civil society engagement is being equated with organised crime.”

Such treatment risks preventing people from “exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly,” she said.

The use of the Stuttgart court is also seen as symbolic, because it is where the trials against the Red Army Faction terrorist group were held in the 1970s.