Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Belarus Drops Charges Against Jewish Leader

Prosecutors in Minsk dropped key charges from their indictment against Yuri Dorn, a leader of the Jewish community of Belarus.

Dorn, who was president of the Union of Religious Jewish Congregations in Belarus at the time of his arrest last year, is no longer charged with bribery, a prosecutor in the case told the Central District Court of Minsk, according to the Belarus paper Nasha Niva.

Dorn will now stand trial on one criminal offense – abuse of power or authority connected with allegations that he rented out communal space without permission. The penalty, according to Niva, is up to three years in prison but could be as minor as a fine.

His indictment had included bribery and forgery charges, but it was revised on Feb. 28, the newspaper reported. Along with bribery, several other charges were dropped.

Dorn has denied all the allegations made against him, including those listed in the revised indictment.

Dorn was arrested in March 2012 on allegations that he had mismanaged the community’s property for personal gain. Police also said Dorn had been caught accepting a $13,000 bribe in a sting operation.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.