German prosecutors have accused Berlin-based Dubliner Daniel Tatlow-Devally and four others of forming a “sabotage squad” that broke into a subsidiary of an Israeli arms firm last September with “indiscriminate destructive intent”.After two false starts, two cancelled hearing dates and unresolved conflicts over trial modalities, the case began on Wednesday at Stuttgart regional court with the reading of the indictment.Federal prosecutor Ronny Stengel accused the five – including British, German and Spanish citizens – of “anarchist” attacks on a German subsidiary of Elbit Systems, a leading Israeli arms company, to counter a “claimed genocide”.“They saw the use of violence as legitimate and necessary to achieve their goals,” he said.In addition to illegal entry and an estimated €1.04 million in property damage, Stengel accused the five of spraying anti-Semitic slogans and symbols glorifying Hamas, as well as membership of a criminal organisation.The incident began in the southwestern city of Ulm at 3.32am on September 4th last when a group of unidentified persons distracted security guards outside the Elbit Systems facility, allowing the five to smash a window in the empty building’s westerly facade.[ German courts check Berlin’s hard line on Irish citizens involved in Gaza protestsOpens in new window ]Filming as they went, the five allegedly used hammers, crowbars and other tools to smash toilets, office equipment and technical equipment.They sprayed walls with slogans including “child murderer”, barricaded themselves in and waited for police to show, Stengel said. Footage later posted online shows the group chanting, in Arabic, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.This expression, viewed by German authorities as a Hamas-linked slogan, was repeated in pre-recorded videos of the five released later on the Instagram channel of a group to which they allegedly belonged, Palestine Action Germany. This group, said the prosecutor, spread anti-Israeli propaganda, denied Israel’s right to exist and “likened Israel to evil”.Spraying red triangles on building windows, Stengel said, “was a conscious glorification of the terror organisation Hamas” by the defendants.Benjamin Düsberg, for Tatlow-Devally, said the five defendants were not the ones who should be in court “but the head of Elbit Systems Germany and the German politicians who permit their fatal business practices”.In opening arguments, he outlined the scale of Gaza’s civilian death toll during Israel’s military response to the Hamas-lead attacks of October 7th.The defence does not dispute their clients carried out the Elbit break-in but frame it as “necessary and appropriate” to halt production in Germany of drone and laser components key to Israel’s military campaign.The break-in, Düsberg argued, was covered by Germany’s “Nothilfe” legal provision covering emergency interventions, in particular for others.“[Our clients] did what anyone with a remnant of heart and head would understand, they deserve to be honoured and respected,” he said. “That they are being punished – and hard – says nothing about our clients but a bit about the current situation of the country that likes to draw on the expression ‘never again’.”The defence stepped up its complaints about the presiding judge’s impartiality, as well as the high-security court proceedings, where the accused sit to the rear of their lawyers behind a glass screen. They also disputed the prosecutor’s claim of an anti-Semitic motive behind the spraying of the words “child murderer”. Maya Beisenherz, representing British defendant Walter Tricks, said the slogan “was clearly directed at firm management involved in a war where, according to conservative estimates, 20,000 children have died”.“Whether this firm is led by Jews is irrelevant,” she said, “as [the statement] is clearly not directed at persons because of their confession but their characteristics as management of this firm.”The case is set to continue until January.