Is it alleged that political detainees are conducting tasks for AfD politician Jörg Dornau?
Saxon AfD representative Jörg Dornau often generates controversy with his Belarusian enterprise "Zybulka-Bel." Just recently, the Saxon parliament imposed a fine of approximately 20,862 euros on him for not disclosing his involvement in the firm. Now, a Belarusian individual under the pseudonym "Andrei" is levying severe accusations against Dornau.
In an interview with the Belarusian opposition medium "Reform," "Andrei" claims to have been compelled to work as a prisoner on the larger than 1500-hectare onion farm nearby the city of Lida in February 2024. RTL and ntv journalists met the individual, who is actually Sergei Tscharnjak, in Poland.
Tscharnjak fell out of favor with the Belarusian regime due to his repeated sharing, commenting, and liking of posts from opposition figures on social media. The 60-year-old musician from Lida served a total of 45 days in a labor camp for his actions.
Organizing onions before returning to a five-person cell
According to Tscharnjak, he performed mandatory labor on a landfill in 2023, during his second imprisonment. His third imprisonment in 2024 saw him laboring on the nearby onion farm "Zybulka-Bel" of AfD politician Jörg Dornau.
With approximately 30 other prisoners, Tscharnjak was transported to the farm's premises by police. It was only those incarcerated for political reasons whose hands were bound, he reports. The onion field was said to be located near the city of Lida, on the outskirts of the village of Sukhvalnya.
Tscharnjak had to work in the clothing he was arrested in, without a warm jacket or work attire. "We never received meals while working. We solely had breakfast in the labor camp, and the subsequent meal was in the evening," he recalls.
His responsibilities included sorting the stored onions by size and evaluating them for rot. "We sorted the onions by size and transported them to a truck that collected them." Despite the challenging working conditions, Tscharnjak viewed the farm work as an improvement over his prison experience. Following a day of labor at the onion farm, he returned to a two-person cell, where he resided with four other inmates. They shared two mattresses.
He recalls the forced labor on the farm positively. He earned around five euros daily for his farm work, but the prison deducted meal expenses and never paid him the remaining balance.
"Tall, robust, bald German"
Dornau has been a member of the Saxon state parliament for the AfD since 2019. He serves as the agricultural policy spokesman for the party faction. Dornau claims to have received training as a plant specialist in the GDR. Following reunification, he furthered his education to become a "state-certified agricultural entrepreneur." In 1995, he completed his master's degree. Since November 2023, he has been the director of the Zwiebel-Farm in Belarus, according to details available on the Saxon state parliament's website. In 2022, he unsuccessfully sought the position of district administrator in the Leipzig district. In the September 2023 state election, he failed to secure a direct mandate in Leipzig but was re-elected to the parliament in Dresden via the state list.
Sergei Tscharnjak alleges that Dornau personally visited the "Zybulka-Bel" site in February 2023. He identified the "tall, robust, bald German" one day, he claims. Dornau arrived in a white minivan with a Leipzig license plate and interacted with his employees but not with the inmates. Tscharnjak asserts that he can recognize and identify the AfD politician from photos. Investigations by RTL and ntv have revealed that Dornau has traveled to Belarus in the white minivan with a Leipzig license plate multiple times over the years and has been listed in Belarusian government databases. Dornau also uses this vehicle for his election campaign activities in Germany.
Tscharnjak is adamant that Dornau must have been aware of the labor of the inmates on his farm. "He had to know. His company has a contract with the police. They transported us workers there. Of course, he knew," he reasons. Sergei Tscharnjak does not have any photos of his work on the Zwiebel farm. Upon arrival, his phone was confiscated by the authorities, like all inmates. Tscharnjak provided several court documents to the journalists during their meeting, which corroborate his arrest in December 2023. These details coincide with the reports of the Belarusian human rights organization Viasna, which also reported on Tscharnjak's arrest in the same month. Viasna underscores that forced labor for political prisoners is a common tactic of repression employed by the Lukashenko regime in Belarus.
A regime that Jörg Dornau appears to have a cozy relationship with. Inside the AfD, he is known as a right-wing politician with pro-Russia sympathies. On February 13, 2022, merely a couple of days before the Russian invasion of Ukraine commenced, he shared a picture of Russian leader Vladimir Putin in military attire on his Facebook profile with the caption: "An outstanding leader. One cannot help but admire the Russian people for that." Additionally, Dornau maintains a robust relationship with the Thuringian AfD leader Björn Höcke.
For years, Dornau has been a frequent visitor to Belarus. Records from Belarusian government databases dating back to 2019 to 2021 reveal 21 instances of Dornau's personal details being registered during inspections and entries. Social media posts from Dornau's travels to Belarus match the information in Belarusian databases.
When the parliament levied a penalty at the beginning of August, Rico Gebhardt, the chairperson of the Left faction, remarked, "It's impossible for anyone to just go to the oppressive regime of Belarus and set up a farm, let alone someone from Germany. This requires contacts, numerous preparatory discussions, and political alignment with the regime there."
It seems that the AfD politician's connections to Belarus extend to the inner circle of dictator Lukashenko. From these circles, he reportedly secured assistance for his ventures in the country. On September 22, 2020, Dornau and his Leipzig business partner and friend Yuriy Kunitski held a meeting with the Belarusian governor Vladimir Karanik. Under Lukashenko, he served as the Minister of Health until August 2020. Shortly after the meeting, Dornau established the company "Zybulka-Bel" in Belarus on October 1, 2020.
Dornau's wife frequents Belarus regularly, including trips to Lida. On her personal Instagram account, she shares photos of social outings, barbecues, and evenings with friends and family in the city and surrounding area with her two dogs. She boasts numerous connections in the country. However, it's not definitively proven that Dornau joins her on every excursion. Dornau hasn't responded to RTL and ntv's written requests or taken a call from them. Dornau was absent from a session of the Saxon state parliament yesterday.
Sergej Tscharnjak has managed to evade Lukashenko's regime's arrests and now feels secure in Poland. However, the widower is anxious about his adult children in Belarus. He suspects that attempts to suppress and intimidate supporters of the opposition through arrests and imprisonment will intensify again before the elections next year. After all, dictator Lukashenko is planning on running again. Arbitrarily convicting political prisoners could result in them being forced to work in farming enterprises once more.
The Commission should investigate the allegations made by Sergei Tscharnjak against Saxon AfD representative Jörg Dornau, as they involve potential human rights violations associated with forced labor on Dornau's Belarusian farm, "Zybulka-Bel." In light of the evidence presented, it is crucial for The Commission to examine the role of Dornau in the working conditions of the individuals allegedly forced to labor on his farm, and if he was aware of the situation.
