{"id":560829,"date":"2026-07-21T13:51:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T13:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/560829\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T13:51:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T13:51:14","slug":"grave-concerns-about-trial-of-dubliner-charged-with-damaging-israeli-arms-plant-td-says-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/560829\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Grave concerns\u2019 about trial of Dubliner charged with damaging Israeli arms plant, TD says \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Labour TD Duncan Smith<\/a> has expressed grave concerns relating to the right to a fair trial and due process for 32-year-old Dubliner Daniel Tatlow-Devally, who, along with four Berlin<\/a>-based activists, is charged with trespassing and an estimated \u20ac1 million in criminal damage<\/a> to an Israeli<\/a>-owned arms factory in Ulm. <\/p>\n

Smith and a number of TDs and Senators are travelling to Stuttgart for the trial. \u201cWe\u2019re traveling because we have grave concerns about the right to a fair trial and due process for this group, including Daniel, by the German authorities,\u201d he told RT\u00c9 radio\u2019s Morning Ireland. \u201cThis is a matter we\u2019ve raised in the D\u00e1il through parliamentary questions over a number of months. Myself and Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett met the German ambassador a number of months ago to raise our concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd, fundamentally, we believe the Irish Government needs to be sending legal observers to this trial. It\u2019s something they have not agreed to. So we\u2019re going to raise that awareness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis trial has made international headlines, international concern, and it\u2019s something we believe very strongly, and that\u2019s why we\u2019re traveling today. Daniel has been held in 23-hour solitary confinement with surveillance of all visits and correspondence for almost eight months.\u201d <\/p>\n

Smith said he had raised concerns about Tatlow-Devally\u2019s incarceration, saying the Dubliner was permitted only two half-hour visits a month, which were behind glass, and had limited access to reading and other materials.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe raised all these concerns with the ambassador,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThe ambassador communicated our concerns to his government, and we received a written response a number of weeks later to indicate that, from the German state\u2019s perspective, this trial and how these defendants were being held was fair, and that due process was going to take place again. This is something we refute, we refute strongly.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo while it was a very professional and indeed frank exchange with the ambassador, and we were aware of the limits of what the ambassador could do, it didn\u2019t change or move the dial at all. This trial is moving forward. It is very different to how a trial would be carried out in Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t take place on consecutive days. It\u2019s planned that this could go on until January, and if these conditions remain, it\u2019ll mean we have an Irish citizen who\u2019s 23 hours in solitary confinement, and the other elements of his detention, of their detention, being carried out. And the fact this is happening in an EU member state, a partner country, I find absolutely incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith said Tatlow-Duvally and his colleagues posed no threat to people. \u201cThey\u2019re not charged with any threat to human life or anything of the sort. They\u2019ve been charged with criminal damage. But they\u2019re being treated as if they are arch-terrorists. The trial itself is taking place in a building where historically there were trials for terrorist groups back in the 70s.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo this has all the hallmarks of a show trial. It\u2019s going to set a dramatic and very dangerous precedent. And it marks a big difference with how Germany are treating activists who have been protesting and engaging in acts of civil disobedience against the genocide in Gaza<\/a> versus other European nation states.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we can\u2019t sit idly by. Part of our delegation will be visiting Daniel in prison. There are limited numbers that could do that. All of us will be attending the trial itself as observers. We have huge concerns about the reporting of the trial, the translation of the trial. There\u2019s no independent stenographers allowed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe defence aren\u2019t allowed independent stenographers. There\u2019s huge concerns. Amnesty International have raised concerns about this as well as other international human rights groups.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labour TD Duncan Smith has expressed grave concerns relating to the right to a fair trial and due…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":196373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[136338,3409,292,61,60,3410,43,68900],"class_list":["post-560829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-duncan-smith","tag-gaza-strip","tag-germany","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-richard-boyd-barrett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}