Five EU citizens are experiencing “procedural violence” both in detention and during their trial for a break-in at a German subsidiary of an Israeli arms company, their relatives have claimed.They were speaking a press conference in Brussels on Tuesday to raise awareness of the ongoing case. The five, including Dubliner Daniel Tatlow-Devally, are accused of causing about €1 million in damage to a facility of Elbit Systems in Ulm, in southwestern Germany, last September.In a statement, Tatlow-Devally told the trial in Stuttgart their attack was motivated by “urgent humanitarian concerns” over Israel’s war in Gaza, and Germany’s support for Israel’s actions.Speaking for the five in Brussels was Nicky Robertson, the mother of 25-year-old Zo Hailu, another of the defendants. Robertson said all five people in detention, “care deeply and profoundly about the injustice of the Palestinian people, in Gaza in particular”.She said the conditions of their pretrial detention “have been abnormal from the start, procedural violence is how I would prefer to call it”.The five have no criminal records and are being kept in five prisons, with up to 23-hour lock-up. [ Dubliner Daniel Tatlow-Devally says German arms plant break-in motivated by ‘urgent humanitarian concerns’Opens in new window ]Robertson described the conditions, including inadequate food and healthcare, limited visits with no unmonitored conversations, as “a form of torture”.Before and since the trial got under way in Stuttgart last month, lawyers for the defendants have filed motions protesting the use of a courtroom in a high-security complex normally used for terrorism trials.They have also questioned the impartiality of the presiding judge and argued that the use of handcuffs in court prejudges the defendants.Placing the defendants behind a glass security panel to the rear of their defence lawyers makes confidential communication impossible in court, they argued.“None of this is in accordance with the presumption of innocence,” said Matthias Breuer, representing Leandra Daniela Rollo Valenzuela, a dual citizen of Spain and Argentina.Speaking in Brussels, Breuer said that an intervention by Ireland, motivated by political lobbying, had seen an improvement of conditions for family visits to Tatlow-Devally.He was responding to a question from Sinn Féin MEP for Dublin Lynn Boylan, who described the treatment of the five as “absolutely horrific”.Germany’s federal prosecutor disputed claims that the prison and trial conditions were disproportionate.“These are the usual restrictions that accompany a judicial order of pretrial detention,” said the prosecutor, noting that the five face “not only the charge of property damage, but in particular whether the group is a criminal organisation”.Reading the indictment in court, federal prosecutor Ronny Stengel described the five as a “sabotage squad” that acted with “indiscriminate destructive intent”.In addition to charges of trespassing, criminal damage and membership of a criminal organisation, they are accused of spraying anti-Semitic slogans and symbols glorifying Hamas.