«Handcuffed to the radiator». Reform.news answers key questions in the case of onion plantation owner Jörg Dornau

The story of German politician Jörg Dornau, from the pro-Russian far-right party AfD, who allegedly uses the labor of political prisoners on his onion plantation near Lida, has caused an uproar in Germany. Journalists from leading German and European outlets conducted their own investigations and shared details. Dornau has yet to comment, has not appeared in the Saxon Parliament, and the case has caught the attention of German lawyers and the local prosecutor’s office. The German Foreign Ministry has also pledged to look into the matter. After our article, journalists, experts, and readers raised many questions. The Reform.news editorial team decided to provide answers to the main ones. We are also publishing new details in the case of the onion plantation owner.

Question 1: How can you rely on the words of a single witness?

It’s true that our investigation included the testimony of one person, whose name we changed. Without context, this may look like an unfounded accusation from an anonymous source. This is exactly what AfD’s press office seized upon to refuse comment on anonymous reports.

To clarify, publishing such testimony in independent media labeled as extremist by the regime guarantees criminal charges, lengthy prison sentences, searches, and pressure on relatives and acquaintances, as well as the seizure of property. If the person is abroad, their relatives can be arrested and tortured, with such torture sometimes published online. There are hundreds of such cases. We would rather refrain from publishing anything than endanger people in Belarus this way.

We were aware of the risks when we gave our witness a voice. After our publication, he chose to reveal his identity and told his story on camera to several German journalists. There is no longer any need to hide his name — it is Lida-based activist and bard Sergei Chernyak.

Question 2: Were there other witnesses?

We had other testimonies, but we did not publish them to avoid endangering people.

All the information was verified through local human rights activists. Special thanks to the Telegram channel «Arrests and Trials in Lida» for helping prepare the material. Notably, this channel reported back in February 2024 about Sergei Chernyak’s arrest and his work on the onion farm. We merely put two and two together and confirmed the use of political prisoners as labor through other «seasonal» workers provided by the detention center.

Question 3: Was the labor forced?

Good question. All our sources said they volunteered (well, almost volunteered) to work. Moreover, they were glad to get out of prison and be in the fresh air.

In the comments on our publication and in German media, we even saw opinions that Dornau was practically saving political prisoners from the torturous conditions in prison and giving them a chance to earn money. Some compared him to a modern-day Oskar Schindler!

We’ll leave those analogies to the commentators and give the floor to another witness. This person is still in Belarus but decided to speak out about his experience. For understandable reasons, we won’t reveal his real name — let’s call him Dmitry.

Unfortunately, Dmitry has been detained in the Lida detention center many times for political reasons. In 2024, he sorted onions several times at Jörg Dornau’s «Cybulka-Bel» farm.

Dmitry says the onion-sorting work was effectively mandatory.

«Everyone is taken to work. In the morning, a guard comes and announces where we’ll be working that day — it could be picking stones (from fields — ed. Reform.news), sorting onions, or going to the dump. One day, I decided not to go to work because I wasn’t feeling well. The guard said, ‘You won’t stay here alone,’ and they handcuffed me to the radiator for the entire day», our witness recalls.

While in the detention center, inmates were allowed only toilet paper and water. Food parcels, like for other political prisoners, were forbidden.

«You had to wear whatever you were arrested in the entire time. They tried to make conditions as harsh as possible. I didn’t shower once in a whole month. They didn’t even let us wash our own clothes!» Dmitry remembers.

According to Dmitry, there were no mattresses, pillows, or bedding in the cell.

«The bed was metal. Three strips lengthwise and four crosswise. That’s how you sleep, with your hand under your head. Twice a night, they’d wake us up. At 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. We had to go to the door, state our names, and say why we were detained. I’m sure you can imagine the quality of such sleep», he says.

There was no toilet in Dmitry’s cell, only a bucket, which was emptied into a shared toilet at the end of the day.

«Imagine the smell in there. The window is closed. Eight people in one room for the entire day, and everything goes into one bucket. The Belarusian ‘biotoilet’», Dmitry says sarcastically.

Dmitry also describes the conditions as torture. Like another person featured in our investigation, Dmitry believes that sorting onions was better than sitting in the overcrowded, stuffy cell.

«You could talk to other prisoners or hired workers. It made the time pass more pleasantly. I can’t say it was horrible», Dmitry reflects, before pausing and adding, «Actually, wait. We weren’t fed all day. We worked in a basement with a temperature of +3°C. After that, I got sick, and my temperature went up. No one in the Lida detention center even tried to help. I had to walk around with a fever and cough until the end of my term. So yeah, in essence, that was torture too».

When asked if he had heard anything about the German farmer, Dmitry replied, «I hadn’t heard of him before. But we all saw him. He came twice. It was in… (for safety reasons, we won’t specify the month — ed. reform.news), if I’m not mistaken».

According to Dmitry, he first saw Jörg Dornau when he entered the storage facility where the prisoners were working. The second time, Dornau was sitting in a car as the prisoners were being taken back to the Lida detention center after work. «I don’t remember exactly what kind of car it was. But it wasn’t small. Maybe a minivan or a small bus. I think it was light-colored», he recalls.

After looking at a photo of a white car (we found a picture of Dornau’s vehicle on his Facebook account), Dmitry said, «Yes, it looks very similar».

Dmitry mentioned that during his shifts, a hired foreman named Yegor (name changed, the real name is known to the Reform.news editorial team) worked with them. He treated political prisoners particularly harshly and often didn’t count their working hours.

«In general, I didn’t see any of my money (for the work — ed. Reform.news). My stay at the detention center had been paid for in advance. When they told us to go to work, I thought at least I’d earn some money. It was better than sitting handcuffed to a radiator. When they told me at the end of my sentence that all the money I earned went towards my stay, I was very surprised. I never received any money», Dmitry concludes.

It should be noted that in Belarus, prisoners have to pay for their stay in detention centers. The money they earn is supposed to go towards covering the cost of their time at the Lida detention center. It’s a kind of special-regime hotel with two meals a day and agricultural fitness.

Question 4: Can you show a written contract between the detention center and Dornau?

Many Western journalists contacted us, trying to obtain documentary evidence of what was described in the article, according to journalistic standards: contracts signed by the prisoners, or a written contract between the detention center and the Cybulka-Bel company. Some even wanted to go to Lida to make a report and asked for help.

Unfortunately, obtaining any documents, contracts, or official comments in modern Belarus is not only impossible — it’s simply dangerous. Tens of thousands of Belarusians have been arrested and subjected to prison torture under political charges. The level of repression is comparable to that in North Korea or Stalin’s Gulag.

We took a different approach and found a former police officer and employee of the Lida District Department of Internal Affairs, who agreed to tell us more about the detention center’s «business model.» Let’s call our witness Pavel.

«The Lida detention center doesn’t make any decisions independently. All contracts were signed by the head of the Lida Department of Internal Affairs, Sergei Nikolayevich Sytsevich», he explains.

It should be noted that Sergei Sycevich recently left his post as the head of the District Department of Internal Affairs. He was promoted — in early September, he became the deputy head of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Grodno Regional Executive Committee. However, during the time our witnesses were working for Jörg Dornau, it was Sycevich who signed all the documents.

According to Pavel, the detention center always had funding problems.

«The state assigned the responsibility of covering the costs of the detention center’s ‘services’ to the offenders. For some people, collecting money was difficult, so  the management came up with ‘work therapy’. For example, prisoners were taken to fields to pick stones, weed garden beds, or to a public waste dump», he notes.

Pavel says that for prisoners, working outside the detention center was an opportunity to leave their cells.

«When political prisoners were detained, their relatives knew where they were sent. They would bring food and could meet with them. As a rule, prisoners consciously chose to go to work. The question is how they were paid. You can understand that these workers weren’t the most motivated», our witness says.

Every detention center has a target collection rate for covering stay costs, Pavel continues: «80%, 90%, or ideally 100%. When Sytsevich signed contracts with farms, waste dumps, or Cybulka-Bel, he was motivated to raise this figure. As the head of the Lida Department of Internal Affairs, it was easier for him to report to the regional authorities».

When asked whether businesses could refuse to cooperate, Pavel replies, «Of course, they could. There is an employment agency in Lida where they could hire people. The detention center offers its services, and for businesses, it’s more profitable to sign a contract with the detention center. You get guaranteed seasonal workers».

Reform.news asked how common it was for wages to be withheld, as in Dmitry’s case.

«That could have happened. A detainee might not know that their stay was paid for in advance. In that case, they could approach and inform the detention center staff. But no one would outright steal the detainees’ money», the former police officer believes.

Question 5: How much did Dornau earn from his plantation?

We also paid attention to the interest of Dornau’s colleagues in the Saxony Landtag in the income he received from the undeclared Belarusian company «Cybulka-Bel». The fine for concealing information depended on the income received, but since Dornau did not provide this information either, he was punished with the minimum fine in such cases — three months’ salary for a deputy, amounting to 20,862 euros.

Reform.news managed to obtain the financial statements of LLC «Cybulka-Bel» (UNP 592000217) as of 2023. Many thanks to concerned Belarusian citizens for their responsiveness.

We consulted a professional Belarusian accountant to help us make sense of the data. For reference, the exchange rate at the end of 2023 was 1 euro = 3.5363 Belarusian rubles.

The profit and loss statement shows that «Cybulka-Bel» operated at a loss of 721,000 Belarusian rubles in 2023: revenue from sales amounted to 3.246 million rubles, while the cost of goods sold was 3.967 million rubles.

This is a normal condition for a newly established enterprise where the owner invests their own funds. Usually, owners allocate everything to the cost of goods sold, resulting in a loss. The key point is that the enterprise is producing products and receiving payments.

By 2023, the company’s assets had increased from 2.874 million Belarusian rubles to 3.775 million Belarusian rubles.

The accountant pointed out the appearance of long-term accounts receivable in the amount of 780,000 rubles. This means that the payment will not be due for at least 36 months. It is unlikely that the company, during such unstable times, would have sent products on credit for such a long period. This could be related to a payment, for example, to the owner or another partner. Without additional documents, it’s impossible to understand the reason for the increase in long-term accounts receivable.

The company also has short-term accounts receivable.

«The increase in short-term accounts receivable under the balance sheet line 250 by 310,000 rubles does not indicate a quick turnover of products or services sold. Everything has been sold, but there is no money, and the main assets were most likely purchased through loans or credits», the accountant explained.

The expert also pointed out the appearance of additional capital in the amount of 884,000 rubles.

«This indicates a revaluation of fixed assets to market value in 2023, which suggests that the company is being prepared for sale», our expert speculated.

In 2023, «Cybulka-Bel» paid a total of 347,000 rubles in wages to its employees.

«Take note of the positions in the cash flow statement lines 050 — 080, they are empty, but the balance sheet lines related to loans and credits have increased. This leads me to believe that either the report is incomplete or it was prepared with errors», the expert suggested.

We decided to publish the full balance sheet so that specialists can study it independently. The file’s metadata has been removed.

Question number 6: Did Dornau sell onions to Germany?

The Belarusian state media, praising the German investor, emphasized that the new plantation would produce much more onions than needed for the domestic market. The majority of the product was intended for export. The main destinations were the EU, Russia, and EAEU countries.

Let us clarify that we could not find any confirmation of the export of products from LLC «Cybulka-Bel» to Germany or other EU countries.

At the end of 2023, Belarus introduced a three-month export licensing system for onions: the export of onions beyond Belarus, regardless of their origin, was subject to one-time licenses issued by the Ministry of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade (MART) in coordination with regional executive committees. It’s worth noting that the German businessman’s close ties to local and regional authorities would hardly have been a barrier to obtaining a license.

In Belarus, statistics are classified, so the potential volume of onion exports to the European market can only be judged by European statistics.

It is known that in 2023, Belarus exported 2,175 tons of onions and shallots to the EU, worth 524.85 thousand euros. Poland purchased 309.4 thousand euros’ worth, Romania — 210.2 thousand euros, and Lithuania — 5.2 thousand euros. In comparison, in 2022, the results were significantly smaller — onions worth only 54.6 thousand euros were sold, and in 2021, just 3.12 thousand euros. In 2022, due to weather conditions in EU countries, demand for imported onions increased.

It should be noted that LLC «Cybulka-Bel» was registered in the fall of 2020 and did not reach significant production capacity until the fall of 2022. The company planned to grow 10,000 tons of onions per year. It is possible that the entry of «Cybulka-Bel» into the market contributed to the explosive growth in exports.

We have not been able to determine what share of the EU exports comes from the German politician’s plantation.

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