In an unprecedented scene at Germany’s Saxony Landtag, or parliament building, Alternative for Germany (AfD) state parliamentarian Jörg Dornau was detained by police inside the chamber, just before the start of the plenary session.
Today, officers escorted the 56-year-old out of the room for questioning in a separate area while simultaneously searching his parliamentary office.
At the same time, his residential and business premises, as well as vehicles in Rötha near Leipzig, were searched.
The arrest followed an emergency session of the parliamentary immunity committee, which recommended lifting Dornau’s immunity.
The full Landtag, or parliament, approved the move, against the votes of the AfD group, clearing the way for the action.
Leipzig’s public prosecutor’s office is investigating Dornau’s long-standing agricultural operations in Belarus, where he is a co-owner and, since late 2023, director of the company OOO Zybulka-Bel (also styled Tsybulka-Bel).
This firm cultivates onions and other vegetables on more than 1,000 hectares of land near Lida.
According to the Leipzig prosecutor, there is possible use of political prisoners from the Lukashenko regime as forced labour on the farm
Reports of this first surfaced in September 2024 from the Belarusian outlet Reform.news and were later examined by German media.
The farm is also linked to accusations of human trafficking and exploitation.
Dornau is further accused of circumvention of European Union sanctions.
In one documented case from August 2022, Dornau’s German company Landprojekt Dornau is accused of routing a banned Manitou MLT 731 tractor from Poland through Kazakhstan on falsified transit documents, with the machine ultimately remaining in Belarus for use by his firm.
Dornau is alleged to have personally ordered the document falsification. If proven, the offence carries a maximum penalty of up to 15 years imprisonment under German law.
An earlier preliminary probe into the forced-labour claims was closed by Leipzig prosecutors in December 2024 for lack of jurisdiction over offences committed abroad. The sanctions related inquiries, though, appear to have provided fresh grounds for today’s intervention.
In 2024, the Landtag Bureau imposed a fine of €20,862 against Dornau because he had not properly disclosed his economic connections to Belarus.
The AfD has previously distanced itself from Dornau’s Belarus activities, stating that any confirmed illegal practices would be “clearly” rejected and could trigger internal party measures.
Dornau has so far declined to comment publicly and the presumption of innocence applies until any charges are brought and a court rules.
Local AfD parliamentary group leader Jörg Urban said he had suspicions that the searches were grounded on a “political motivation” that was intended to damage the AfD deputy.
Bild, though, reported that within the AfD, his behaviour was considered “damaging to the party”.
Belarus, or rather its leadership under strongman Alexander Lukashenko, is seen as a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the country and its elites have been hit with many sanctions over human rights violations and support for the war in Ukraine.
