Human rights activists in Belarus claim that German “politician” exploits political prisoners, – media

Jörg Dornau, a member of the far-right Alternative for Germany party in the Saxony state parliament, used political prisoners to work on his onion plantation in Belarus, the Belarusian news outlet Reform.news reports.

Dornau entered into an agreement with the local Center for the Isolation of Offenders (CIP) to employ Belarusians convicted of political crimes at his Belarusian agro-company OOO Tsybulka-Bel.

One of the workers at Dornau's farm, Andrey, told the publication that he sorted onions for about 5 euros a day after he was detained in February 2024 for liking a post on social media.

“They took us to a warehouse. February, a basement, clothes like everyone else's. So our hands and feet were freezing. Breakfast at 7:00 in the morning. We worked like that until 18:00 without food or water. The onions are delicious,” he said.

He says that a contract was signed between Tsybulka-Bel and the Lida CIP, and the work was not forced. The money earned was supposed to go toward the cost of the CIP.

“The consent to work was signed daily. If the senior officer thought that the detainee was working well, he was given a salary. The Lida police department was paid 30 rubles (Belarusian), the detainees – about 20. Onions were sorted for the retail chain “Euroopt”, – Andrei said.

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He also said that once he even saw a German businessman.

“A tall, bald man. One day he arrived in his car with a German registration. He went to the warehouse where we, together with hired workers, were sorting onions.”

When journalists showed Andrei a photo of Jörg Dornau, he said that he looked very similar to the man he had seen.

Since 2019, Dornau has represented the far-right populist AfD party in the parliament of Saxony in eastern Germany and has come under scrutiny through his business in Belarus.

Last month, the Saxon parliament ordered Dornau to pay a fine of 20,862 euros for failing to disclose his involvement in Tsybulka-Bel. The company was registered in Belarus in October 2020 after the country was engulfed in pro-democracy protests.

As of Tuesday, there are more than 1,300 political prisoners in Belarus, according to the Belarusian human rights organization Viasna.

This is not the first time that members of the German far-right party have found themselves in controversy. This year, one of the party's leading politicians was accused of receiving money from pro-Kremlin agents. An assistant to one of the parliamentarians was exposed as a spy for China.

Prepared by: Nina Petrovich