A German MP accused of using the labor of Belarusian political prisoners was detained for circumventing sanctions

German police in the parliament of the federal state of Saxony detained a deputy from the far-right Alternative for Germany party, Jörg Dornau. He is suspected of circumventing EU sanctions, Tagesschaureports , citing public broadcaster MDR.

The detention and subsequent searches in the deputy’s apartment and office are related to his onion farm in Belarus, Tsybulka-Bel. The investigation believes that in August 2022, the deputy sent a sanctioned telehandler there, indicating incorrect data in customs documents. In this regard, Dornau was suspected of violating the German Law on Foreign Economic Activity.

The leader of the Alternative for Germany faction in the Saxon parliament, Jörg Urban, suggested at the meeting that the criminal investigation against Dornau and the search of his house were “politically motivated.” Dornau himself has not yet commented on suspicions of circumventing EU sanctions.

The fact that Darnau is the owner of an onion farm in Belarus became known in 2024, when the Presidium of the Saxon Parliament fined him 20,862 euros for this.

A month later, Reform.news told the story of a Belarusian who was arrested for 15 days in February 2024 for liking on social networks. The man said that political prisoners were taken to work in onion fields at will, where they worked for 13 euros for ten hours a day. The publication claimed that the owner of the onion fields was the Tsybulka-Bel enterprise, which had concluded a corresponding agreement with the Belarusian security forces.

After this, checks began in Germany against Dornau and Tsybulka-Bel. The deputy hastened to sever relations with the company and announced that from October 2024 he ceased to hold the post of director. In March 2025, the company itself, as Die Zeit writes, found itself on the EU sanctions list due to accusations of “serious violations of human rights and suppression of the democratic opposition.”

The publication adds that Dornau's lawyer Roland Ulbrich denied some of the accusations, but at the same time indirectly confirmed that prison labor was used on the farm.

“It is definitely not true that farm workers were not provided with food and drink!” - he said. At the same time, Ulbrich added that his client does not know what crimes the people who worked on his farm were accused of.