Irish Prisoners Abroad
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-02
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Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (SF), Cork South-Central

At the heart of this is an increasing trend, not just in Germany, but in other countries as well, of using legislation initially intended for organised crime to prosecute climate activists and Palestine activists and, in several respects, dampen down political criticism and protests. There is a similar situation in Britain with regard to Palestine Action. When the relevant legislation was introduced 15 years ago, people raised concerns and asked whether it could be used to prosecute Greenpeace and so on. Those concerns were dismissed out of hand by the Ministers at the time. Lo and behold, political organisations are now being targeted by that legislation. We see the same here.
The conditions in which Mr. Tatlow-Devally is being held are not acceptable. I am sure the Minister will agree with that. There is a knee-jerk assumption that European countries will have fair trials, and that is fine - that is the baseline assumption in these institutions. At the end of the day, there is a concern about a fair trial. The Minister said she had raised this matter with the state secretary. What response was she given? What is Germany going to do to ensure there is a fair trial and decent conditions in advance of that?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-02/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:14+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-02