The Open Dialogue Foundation (ODF), a Polish-Belgian non-governmental organisation founded in 2009 with a long record of controversy in European political circles, has continued to flout a ruling by a Brussels court, leaving online content the court found to be unlawfully defamatory more than two months after it was ordered removed.
The French-speaking Enterprise Court of Brussels ruled on March 30, 2026, that allegations published by ODF in 2023, claiming that Bakai Bank, one of Kyrgyzstan’s largest commercial lenders, had participated in schemes to circumvent international financial sanctions against Russia imposed in the wake of the Ukraine war, were inadequately substantiated and had unlawfully damaged the bank’s reputation.
Despite being required under the ruling to remove all bank references from its website within 30 days, ODF has left the offending materials online. Under the court’s order, the foundation faces a fine of €10,000 for each day of non-compliance. It remains unclear whether any efforts are currently underway to recover these penalties.
COURT REJECTS SLAPP DEFENCE
Bakai Bank initiated legal proceedings in 2024, arguing that ODF’s publications had crossed the line from legitimate civil society advocacy into targeted denigration. The court sided with the bank on all key points.
The judges determined that ODF qualifies as an “enterprise” under Belgian economic law, making it liable under strict rules against commercial denigration.
On the substance of the allegations, the court found that ODF had levelled serious and specific accusations without adequate factual grounding, relying on secondary and unverified sources rather than primary evidence.
The court also rejected ODF’s attempt to have the case dismissed as a SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation), finding no indication the legal action had been brought abusively or with the intent to silence legitimate criticism.
ODF complied with one element of the ruling, publishing the court’s decision prominently on its website. The removal of the underlying accusations against Bakai Bank has not followed.
A PATTERN OF CONTROVERSY
The defiance of the Brussels ruling is the latest episode to draw scrutiny to an organisation that has repeatedly found itself at the centre of political and legal disputes across Europe and that raises broader questions about transparency and the rule of law in EU civil society.
In February 2026, ODF became embroiled in a political controversy in Poland after the prominent Polish YouTube channel Kanał Zero accused it of participating in a coordinated campaign to discredit independent media, allegedly linked to figures in Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s circle. The foundation denied the claims.
ODF has also faced persistent reporting across European outlets alleging that it lobbied on behalf of Mukhtar Ablyazov, the fugitive Kazakh financier and former chairman of BTA Bank accused in Kazakhstan of embezzling more than $6 billion (€5.5 billion) and sought in the United Kingdom for allegedly giving false testimony in court proceedings.
Media investigations have additionally placed the NGO and its Ukrainian-born president, Lyudmyla Kozlovska, in proximity to Antonio Panzeri, the former Italian Socialist MEP who became a central figure in the Qatargate corruption scandal that broke in December 2022, in which EU officials were accused of accepting payments in exchange for favourable political positions.
