A Belarusian athlete who took refuge in the Polish embassy in Tokyo after refusing her team’s orders to fly home from the Olympic Games will travel to Poland on Wednesday.
Sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya was granted a humanitarian visa by the Warsaw government.
She had earlier refused to get on a flight home, saying she had been taken to the airport against her will by Belarusian officials because she had criticised her team’s coaching staff.
Aleksandr Opeykin, chairman of the Belarusian Sports Solidarity Foundation said She will fly from Tokyo, a direct flight to Warsaw on August 4, in two days’ time..
A source at the foundation, which supports athletes jailed or sidelined for their political views, said Tsimanouskaya planned to request asylum in Germany or Austria on Monday.
Polish deputy foreign minister Pawel Jablonski said: “I can confirm that we have issued a humanitarian visa. I can confirm that we will provide all necessary support in Poland if she wishes to use it.”
Tsimanouskaya, 24, had been due to compete in the women’s 200 metre heats on Monday but said that on Sunday she was taken to the airport to board a Turkish Airlines flight.
The European Union welcomed Poland’s decision to grant a visa and said the repatriation attempt was further evidence of “brutal repression” by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
The U.S. ambassador to Belarus, Julie Fisher, said Lukashenko’s government had tried to discredit and humiliate Tsimanouskaya for expressing her views.
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