Boyd Barrett criticises “show trial” of Dublin man on trial in Germany

After witnessing the Ulm 5 trial in Germany, People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett has called on the government to send official government observers.

The Dún Laoghaire TD was part of a cross-party delegation to Germany to visit Daniel Tatlow Devally, an Irish citizen, originally from Blackrock, in prison.

Tatlow-Devallyhas been in prison since September 8 2025, after he and 4 others were arrested for causing damage to an arms manufecatuer, who the group allege was helping facilitate the Israeli war machine in Gaza.

The Ulm 5 are charged with criminal damage at Elbit systems, an arms manufacturer that produces 80% of the weapons used by the Israeli state in the military campaign against Gaza.

The five have been held in solitary confinement in different prisons, 23 hours a day since their arrest.

The trial started on April 27th and there are over 40 dates scheduled up to January 2027, at which point the 5 will have been in prison for 15 months.

The cross party delegation was initiated by Richard Boyd Barrett and included party colleague, Ruth Coppinger TD; TD Mairead Farrell and MEP Lynn Boylan from Sinn Féin, Labour TD Duncan Smith, Senator Patricia Stephenson from the Social Democrats, and Fine Gael TD Barry Ward.

Boyd Barrett said “I initiated this delegation after Daniel’s family reported inhumane conditions in the prison and serious irregularities in the trial proceedings that they believed infringed the human rights of the five Palestine activists.”

“I have been raising this issue in the Dáil since early this year, but when all requests to Minister McEntee, for official observation of the trial, fell on deaf ears, I decided to try and get a cross-party delegation to see for ourselves what was happening.”

“After visiting and talking to Daniel and observing the trial for myself I want to appeal to the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Foreign Affairs to do what was done in the case of the Colombia 3 and Ibrahim Halawa and send official government observers to this trial.  I am also calling on them to do everything in their power to ensure the conditions that Daniel and the other 4 are being kept in comply with fundamental human rights,” he said.

“We went to Germany because we were gravely concerned by accounts of the trial and the conditions of detention for Daniel and the other activists. Having visited Daniel in prison and witnessed the manner in which the trial is being conducted I am convinced this is a show trial where the defendants are not being given a fair chance to present their defence and are being treated in a brutal, inhumane  and totally unacceptable way.”