Shane O'Brien has been acquitted of all charges related to a Gaza protest in Berlin in 2024. File photograph: Andrés Felipe
Berlin-based Irish citizen Shane O’Brien has been acquitted of all charges in connection with a Gaza-related protest at a Berlin university in October 2024.
The 31-year-old was accused of trespassing, assault on law enforcement officers, prisoner release and bodily harm after an altercation with police officers on the campus of the Free University.
After a five-hour hearing on Wednesday, Berlin district court threw out three charges against him and dismissed the final charge of trespassing. The ruling came after the court viewed a video provided by the defence which appeared to contradict key testimony minutes earlier from two police officers.
They were posted to Berlin’s Free University on October 17th, 2024, during a pro-Gaza protest, when groups of masked individuals barricaded themselves in the main administrative building. University authorities say protestors sprayed pro-Palestinian slogans on walls and damaged computer servers.
The police officers were asked by the university to enter the building and escort out an employee locked in her office. In court, both described meeting two individuals in a cellar area.
One officer said he sustained minor injuries after he was shoved several times by O’Brien and a second defendant, Saree Ibrahami, before the two fled the scene together.
“Mr O’Brien has a very striking face,” said one officer, recalling the defendant’s curly red hair. “They were dressed in black but not masked, I definitely recognise O’Brien.”
He recalled being surrounded by a “mob” of around 15 masked individuals in black clothes.
The other officer agreed that O’Brien was not masked and recalled a “very dynamic situation” with lots of shoving.
Short clip
Following their testimony, defence lawyer Benjamin Düsberg asked the court to view a short clip, apparently filmed from a nearby landing.
The clip appeared to show an animated verbal exchange, where the only body contact was a police officer grabbing around the waist a person in a keffiyeh scarf. Both persons talking to police have their hair covered and appear masked, while the faces of the police officers in the short clip were pixelated. In total around seven people were visible in the area filmed.
The police officers said both individuals produced passports when asked, which one officer checked. Both passports subsequently disappeared, according to defence lawyer Benjamin Düsberg, meaning no confirmation was possible of who interacted with the police.
After a brief recess, Judge Andreas Rische dismissed the case, saying that “despite all the confusion, I see no need for sanction”.
Rische told the defendants he favoured free expression but had “zero understanding why anyone would go into a building to damage things”.
“I don’t know if you had anything to do with it,” he said, “but I still don’t understand it and I don’t think that contributes to acceptance.”
Defence laywer Benjamin Düsberg told the court O’Brien and others had been subjected to a “hate campaign”, with politicians and media outlets describing them as “terrorists and serious criminals”.
“Now everything has evaporated into thin air,” he said. “Once again Berlin police false testimony has been exposed, something which had massive consequences for my client.”
In March 2025, O’Brien and others were served with orders stripping them of the EU freedom of movement rights and ordering them to leave the city by April 21st.
Berlin authorities cited security risks and said a conviction was not necessary to execute the order. Berlin’s administrative court disagreed and paused the expulsion order pending a final hearing.
Düsberg said he would file libel charges “immediately” against Berlin’s governing mayor Kai Wegner, who last year described O’Brien as an “anti-Semitic criminal”.
O’Brien declined to comment directly on the outcome of his case, saying it was “irrelevant as long as bombs are still being dropped on Gaza and children dying”.