A prisoner in the Lida CIO. Drawing by Evgeny Lukashevich from the website spring96.org
German businessman and member of the populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD), Jörg Dornau, signed an agreement with the Lida «Center for the Isolation of Offenders» (CIO) and regularly employed Belarusians convicted on political charges to work on his onion plantation near Lida. They were paid around 5 euros per day. As Reform.news found out, the German politician personally inspected the work of political prisoners.
We found one of those «politicals» who sorted onions for Jörg Dornau at the «Cybulka-Bel» company. His name is Andrei (name changed). He is not the only one who was sent from the CIO to do agricultural work, but he was the only one willing to share his story with Reform.news.
Andrei was detained in February 2024. He was sentenced to 15 days in the CIO for liking a post on social media. Andrei describes the working conditions as follows:
— They took us to a warehouse. February, basement, everyone had different clothing. So, our hands and feet were freezing. Breakfast was at 7:00 AM. We worked until 6:00 PM without food or drink. The onion is tasty.
Andrei says that a contract was signed between «Cybulka-Bel» and the Lida CIO. He notes that the work was not forced. The money earned was meant to cover the costs of being held at the CIO.
— We signed consent for the work every day. If the foreman thought a detainee was working well, he would be paid. The Lida CIO was paid 30 rubles, the detainees around 20. The onions were sorted for the ‘Evroopt’ trading network.
When asked if he had heard anything about the German farmer, Andrei replies:
— I even saw him! Tall, bald man. He came once in his car with German registration. He went into the warehouse where we were sorting onions along with hired workers.
Looking at a photo of Jörg Dornau, Andrei responds:
— Looks like him!
Jörg Dornau was born in Borna, Saxony. He is 53 years old, has an agricultural education, and is engaged in entrepreneurial activities. In 2016, Dornau joined the far-right pro-Russian party «Alternative for Germany» (AfD). Since 2019, he has been a member of the Saxon parliament, representing the AfD parliamentary group on agricultural policy.
Dornau was also a member of the extremist radical faction of the AfD known as «The Wing».
The German politician made headlines in national German media after it was revealed that he owns the agricultural enterprise «Cybulka-Bel» LLC in Belarus. His farm cultivates onions and other vegetables on several hundred hectares in the Lida district. While conducting business is not prohibited for members of parliament under Saxon parliamentary law, Jörg Dornau concealed his business in Belarus, thus violating his reporting obligations. As a result, in August 2024, the Saxon parliament fined him 20,862 euros.
In Belarus, the German businessman often appeared in state-run Belarusian media, met with high-ranking officials, and enjoyed the patronage of the authorities.
He registered his company, LLC «Cybulka-Bel», in October 2020 in the village of Gudy in the Lida district of the Grodno region. This was precisely when Alexander Lukashenko, with the help of his security forces, was suppressing mass protests against the falsification of the presidential election.
By decisions of the Lida district executive committee, land plots with a total area of 1,555.4 hectares from the RUP «Sovkhoz Lidskiy» were gradually transferred to «Cybulka-Bel» for permanent use.
«Jörg Dornau is the leading specialist in onion cultivation in Germany. Within three years, agrarians from Leipzig expect to produce more than 10,000 tons of onions annually. This means that approximately every fifth onion grown in our country will be from Lida», boasted the newspaper of Lukashenko’s administration, «SB. Belarus Today», in July 2021.
The project’s cost, according to the deputy chairman of the Lida district executive committee, Igor Kvasovka, was estimated at between 4.7 and 6 million rubles (€1,410,000 and €1,800,000).
«In addition to vegetable cultivation and processing, the investor plans to create a full-fledged logistics complex for the storage and processing of products. Forty-five new jobs will be created», wrote the state-run «Lidskaya Gazeta» in January 2021.
It sounds promising, doesn’t it? New jobs!
In addition, «Cybulka-Bel» participated in government procurement procedures. From 2022 to 2024, Jörg Dornau’s company provided the state with soil liming services for acidic soils three times. The total cost of these services amounted to 70,992 Belarusian rubles.
It would have been extremely difficult for Jörg, without knowledge of the language and necessary connections, to run a business in Belarus. He has a partner, businessman Yurij Kunitski, who lives in Germany. German press materials describe him as follows:
«…has been working for many years for the Russian and Belarusian propaganda apparatus, and whose credit reports state: Business relations are not recommended».
This did not prevent him from entering into a joint business with Dornau: 50% of «Cybulka-Bel» is owned by Kunitski. From December 2020 to November 2023, he was also the company’s director, only later handing the position over to Dornau.
In an article from the «Lidskaya Gazeta» dated March 31, 2021, Yurij Kunitski stated that the process of land allocation was being carried out in accordance with existing legislation. «The staffing issue is also being addressed. The team is gradually growing. At present, we are recruiting machine operators to carry out the work. Overall, the company plans to employ up to 50 people, including seasonal workers» the newspaper wrote.
«Taking this opportunity, I would like to thank the district and regional leadership for their trust. We were given the green light» Kunitski said.
As we can see, Jörg Dornau took a rather unconventional approach to solving the staffing issue at «Cybulka-Bel». He personally inspected the work of Belarusian political prisoners. The German politician knew about and signed documents regarding the «services» provided by an institution where Belarusians are deliberately tortured.
During his visit to Belarus, Dornau remarked:
— Germany is missing out on economic opportunities in a country located at the heart of the new ‘Silk Road,’ serving as a kind of bridge to the Eurasian Economic Union with its more than 180 million consumer population.
Dornau chose not to miss out on the chance for economic cooperation with the country at the heart of the Silk Road and took advantage of the services provided by the Lida «Center for the Isolation of Offenders».
As a reminder, special conditions are created for «politicals» in detention cells: mattresses, pillows, and bedding are taken away. It is forbidden to sit or lie on the beds. Detainees are deprived of all packages. The light in the cell is on 24/7, and they are woken up several times at night. Most cells do not have toilets or sinks — only a plastic bucket in the corner, which must be emptied into a shared restroom in the hallway each morning. Our interviewee Andrei calls these conditions torturous.
In modern Belarus, it is impossible to punish those who exploit the lack of rights of Belarusians. Therefore, the Reform.news team hopes that German society can convey to Jörg Dornau the ethical concerns surrounding the practice of using political prisoners as labor.
Reform.news requested comments from Jörg Dornau, but as of the time of publication, we have not received a response.