Stuttgart rally for the ‘Ulm 5’ ends with pepper spray and arrests
Police say participants attacked officers at a rally for five activists held in pretrial detention. The Left party also took part in the demonstration.
Symbolic image · Photo: Giftzwerg 88 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped and resized)
A demonstration in Stuttgart on Saturday in support of the so-called “Ulm 5” turned violent. Police said on X that officers were attacked, pyrotechnics were set off and some participants were masked. After further attacks, officers used pepper spray. Police confirmed arrests for several offences but initially gave no details. Organisers put turnout at about 1,000; police said 600 to 700.
Pro-Palestinian groups, anti-war initiatives and the Left party (Die Linke) took part under the slogan “Free the Ulm 5”. The five activists – three women and two men – are in pretrial detention, in part because they are considered a flight risk. They are accused of breaking into an Israeli defence company in Ulm at night about a year ago and causing damage worth millions; they are alleged to belong to the network “Palestine Action Germany”. At the Stuttgart Regional Court they face charges including criminal damage, trespass and suspected membership of a criminal organisation. They are presumed innocent.
Protest spokesman Jonas Wolf criticised the lengthy pretrial detention as “highly unusual” for criminal damage cases, as well as the bulletproof glass screen in the courtroom separating the defendants from their lawyers, according to the newspaper Die Welt.