The arrest took place on the premises of the Saxon parliament in Dresden. The officers took the politician out of the building and took him to a separate room for questioning, the Bild daily reported. Earlier, the prosecutor's office asked to waive the politician's immunity, to which the regional parliament agreed.
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Joerg Dornau suspected of circumventing sanctions
As part of the proceedings, Dornau's apartment, his business premises and his vehicles were searched.
The prosecutor's office accuses the Saxon AfD MP of violating EU sanctions against Belarus. According to investigators, in August 2022, Dornau indicated Kazakhstan as the target country for the telehandler, although in fact the equipment went to Belarus. This was to circumvent the existing export ban.
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Joerg Dornau has a farm in Belarus
According to the findings of “Bild”, Dornau runs an onion farm in Belarus. His activities have been of interest to the prosecutor's office for a long time, which is investigating, among others, undisclosed shares in an agricultural enterprise and income derived therefrom.
In the past, there were also suspicions about the employment of political prisoners at the Dornau farm. The prosecutor's office in Leipzig initiated preparatory proceedings in this case, but after conducting an inspection, it concluded that there were no grounds for suspicion of committing crimes prosecuted under German law.
The European Union has imposed broad sanctions on Belarus in response to human rights violations by its authorities, Minsk's support for Russia's war against Ukraine and hybrid attacks against the EU. Sanctions include, among others: export restrictions, as a result of which some goods cannot be delivered to Belarus.
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There has been a long-standing debate in Germany about the links between AfD politicians and Russia. The media regularly reports on visits of representatives of this group to the Russian embassy and on their trips to Russia. AfD denies ties with the authorities in Moscow.
