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Belarus athlete will fly to Poland after refusing orders to go home

Reuters

TOKYO • An 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, a group of her supporters said.

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 criticized her team’s coaching staff.

“She will fly from Tokyo, a direct flight to Warsaw on August 4, in two days’ time,” said Aleksandr Opeykin, chairman of the Belarusian Sports Solidarity Foundation.

“She has accepted the offer issued by the Polish Foreign Ministry to request international help, she has done that and she has received a Polish visa today. We, at the Foundation, helped her to get the ticket to Warsaw,” Opeykin told Reuters.

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.

“She is a young sportswoman, a successful one and obviously she would want to continue her career so she will need help to train and develop,” Opeykin said.

The athlete arrived at the Polish embassy in Tokyo 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 meter heats on Monday but said that on Sunday she was taken to the airport to board a Turkish Airlines flight.

She refused, telling Reuters: “I will not return to Belarus.”

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.

The incident has focused attention on Belarus, where police have cracked down on dissent following a wave of protests triggered by an election last year which the opposition says was rigged to keep Lukashenko in power.

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2021-08-03T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-08-03T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://daily.denvergazette.com/article/281775632204292

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