‘Kidnapped’ Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya is holed up in the Polish embassy in Tokyo after the country granted her a humanitarian visa amid concerns over her safety.
On Sunday, Tsimanouskaya refused an order to fly back to Belarus from the Tokyo Olympics.
The 24-year-old was seen going into the Polish embassy in the Japanese capital on Monday, having spent the night at a ‘secure’ airport hotel after handing herself over to police at the city’s main airport on Sunday.
Hours later, it was revealed that she had been granted a humanitarian visa and is now due to fly to Warsaw on Wednesday, where it is hoped she will be safe from the regime of dictatorial ruler Alexander Lukashenko.
Meanwhile Tsimanouskaya’s husband Arseni Zhdanevich revealed he had fled his home country to Ukraine, speaking to journalists from Kiev on Monday and saying that he hopes to join his wife in Poland ‘in the near future’.
‘I made the decision to leave without thinking twice,’ he told Sky News, though admitted he didn’t expect the situation to escalate as far as it has.’We’re just normal sports people,’ he added, ‘we’re just devoted to sports and we’re not interested in the opposition movement.’
He fled as Franak Viocorka, senior adviser Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, warned Tsimanouskaya’s family who are still in the country could now become targets of the regime to put pressure on her.He later claimed on Twitter that her parents and grandmother are under threat.
The saga began last week when Tsimanouskaya uploaded a post to Instagram criticising her trainers for entering her into the 4x400m relay without her knowledge and without her training for the event.She was due to compete in the 200m sprint today.
She was next seen at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on Sunday where she handed herself over to police, claiming she was being taken out of the country against her will and that she feared for her safety if she returned home.
Lukashenko, known as Europe’s last dictator, has cracked down on dissent since claiming victory in elections last year that he is widely thought to have rigged — jailing critics who have reported being beaten and electrocuted by police behind bars.At least 10 people have died as a result, opposition activist say.
Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, 24, the Belarusian athlete who claimed Olympic officials from her country were trying to kidnap her after she criticised them, is pictured arriving at the Polish embassy in Tokyo as she seeks asylum
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