German lawmakers have expressed concerns over a recent report by a Belarusian website that activists jailed by Minsk on administrative charges in 2020 were sent to work at onion plantations belonging to a company led by a German lawmaker who belongs to the far-right populist Alternative for Germany party (AfD).
According to the report, issued by Reform.news on September 24, Jorg Dornau owns an onion plantation in the Lida district of western Belarus where jailed Belarusians were paid 5 euros ($5.60) per day on a voluntary basis to work.
Kerstin Koeditz, a lawmaker in the Saxony parliament, told RFE/RL on September 26 that if the allegations are found to be true, Dornau must resign.
"This sort of business conduct may damage Germany's reputation and uncover old wounds from the fascism times of our eastern neighbors," Koeditz said.
Neither Dornau nor AfD party officials would comment on the situation when contacted by RFE/RL.
Despite being hounded by scandals, AfD, bolstered by support from disenchanted younger voters, has performed well in recent European and state elections.
The Reform.news report quoted a Belarusian man who said he worked at Dornau's onion farm in Lida while serving a 15-day jail term for liking a post on social media.
The farm belongs to Zybulka-Bel Ltd. company that was established by Dornau and Yury Kunitsky, a German citizen from the former Soviet Union.
The company was set up in October 2020, the same time as when the country's authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka's regime was violently arresting thousands of protesters who challenged the official results of an August 2020 presidential election that handed him victory despite opposition and Western claims the poll rigged.
Since then he has continued to put Belarusian behind bars for even the slightest hint of dissent.
The Reform.news report said that inmates worked at the onion fields on the basis of an agreement Dornau signed with the Center for the Isolation of Offenders in Lida.
Juliane Pfeil , a member of the Saxony parliament, told RFE/RL that Dornau had failed to fill out all necessary forms with questions regarding a separate report in April by a German newspaper Welt am Sonntag about Dornau's business in Belarus.
"Such behavior leads one to think that there is something more behind this," Pfeil said, adding Dornau has already been fined three months' pay, 20,862 euros ($23,302), for failing to fully disclose his business dealings in Belarus.
It is not illegal for German lawmakers to have private businesses in countries such as Belarus. However, lawmakers must be transparent in reporting incomes.
Roderich Kiesewetter, a member of the German Bundestag representing the Christian Democratic Union, told RFE/RL that if the allegations are proven, Dornau must face criminal prosecution.
"AfD has always been close and had ties with the dictatorships in Russia and Belarus. There were trips by party members to Belarus, and, in general, AfD is Russia's mediator in Germany, constantly involved in the destruction of the democratic state order," Kiesewetter said.
In reference to the report, the self-exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya told the Tagesspiegel newspaper it is "immoral to cooperate with Lukashenka's regime and its repressive institutions."