German far-right politician accused of using forced labour at Belarus farm

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German authorities are investigating claims that a far-right politician used political prisoners as cheap labour at his farm in Belarus, the latest scandal to engulf Alternative for Germany (AfD) over links to authoritarian regimes.

Prosecutors are examining allegations that Jörg Dornau, a member of the state parliament in the east German region of Saxony, used detainees to work on a 1,500-hectare onion plantation that he owns near the city of Lida, in western Belarus.

According to the independent Belarusian outlet Reform.news, which first reported the claims, many of the workers were imprisoned on political grounds such as following social media channels opposed to Alexander Lukashenko, the country’s authoritarian leader, who is also Vladimir Putin’s closest ally in Europe.

A subsequent report by the German public broadcaster MDR suggested that Belarusian authorities could even be conducting mass arrests in order to ensure that enough workers were provided to the farm.

A spokesperson for the public prosecutor in Leipzig told the Financial Times on Friday that they had received a report of allegations of human trafficking, forced labour and labour exploitation and were investigating.

The allegations about Dornau’s business activities in Belarus are the latest in a series of cases highlighting links between some of the world’s most oppressive regimes and the AfD, whose strong results in recent elections have sent shockwaves through the German political establishment.

In April, police arrested an aide to Maximilian Krah, the party’s lead candidate in European elections that took place in June, on suspicion of spying for Beijing. The staffer, Jian Guo, denies any wrongdoing.

A further arrest in that case came this week, with the detention of a Chinese citizen accused of passing information on the transportation of German military equipment to Guo.

The AfD later expelled Krah from its group in the European parliament after he claimed that not everyone who served in Adolf Hitler’s SS was a criminal.

But the party retained Petr Bystron, another MEP, who is being investigated by German police and prosecutors on suspicion of money laundering and corruption. He is suspected of taking funds from the Kremlin in exchange for spouting Russian propaganda. Bystron denies any wrongdoing.

Still, the allegations have done little to dent support for the AfD, which overtook all three parties in Olaf Scholz’s ruling coalition to claim second place in Germany in the European elections. Last month, it won elections in the east German state of Thuringia, and came second in nearby Saxony and Brandenburg.

Dornau himself is close to some of the AfD’s most radical figures and has publicly expressed admiration for Vladimir Putin.

The politician had already faced trouble over his onion farm. He was fined more than €20,000 earlier this year by the Saxon state parliament for failing to declare the income that he received from the site. At the time, his opponents raised questions about how he could set up a farm in a country where economic interests are tightly controlled and corruption is rife. 

Sergei Tscharnjak, a folk musician now exiled in Poland, told the German broadcasters RTL and NTV that he worked on the farm earlier this year while serving a stint in jail. He said it was inconceivable that the AfD politician could not have known that prisoners were being used to provide cheap labour, adding that he had seen Dornau visit the farm. 

Tscharnjak, who said he was nominally paid €5 a day for his work but never received any money, said he worked long days on the farm in tough conditions but nonetheless enjoyed it as a welcome change from being stuck in jail.

Dornau has not responded publicly to the claims. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the Saxony or national branches of the AfD.