Activists: Belarus sprinter plans to seek asylum in Poland

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TOKYO – A Belarusian Olympic sprinter plans to question asylum successful Poland aft alleging that officials tried to unit her location from Japan and that she feared for her safety, an activistic radical said Monday.

Athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya is applying for a visa astatine the Polish embassy successful Tokyo, according to Vadim Krivosheyev, of the Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation. He told The Associated Press that the radical has bought her a level summons to Warsaw for Aug. 4.

The existent standoff seemingly began aft Tsimanouskaya criticized however officials were managing her team. Tsimanouskaya, who was owed to tally successful the Olympic 200-meter heats Monday, said connected her Instagram relationship that she was enactment successful the 4x400 relay adjacent though she has ne'er raced the event.

Tsimanouskaya said successful a filmed connection distributed connected societal media that she was pressured by Belarus squad officials and asked the International Olympic Committee for help.

“I was enactment nether unit and they are trying to forcibly instrumentality maine retired of the state without my consent,” the 24-year-old runner said.

Belarus’ authoritarian authorities has engaged successful a brutal crackdown connected dissent aft a statesmanlike predetermination a twelvemonth agone triggered a question of unprecedented wide protests. Authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko has relentlessly pursued dissidents, including precocious allegedly diverting a level to Minsk to person 1 arrested.

The sports instauration said authorities supporters targeted Tsimanouskaya, and the jock contacted the radical for help.

“The run was rather superior and that was a wide awesome that her beingness would beryllium successful information successful Belarus,” Alexander Opeikin, a spokesperson for the BSSF, told the AP successful an interview.

Tsimanouskaya summoned Japanese constabulary astatine Haneda Airport and did not committee a formation departing for Istanbul. Foreign ministry officials arrived aboriginal astatine the airport, Opeikin said.

Underscorign the seriousness of the allegations, respective groups and countries accidental they are helping the runner. Poland and the Czech Republic offered help, and Japan’s Foreign Ministry said it was moving with the International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo Olympics organizers.

The IOC, which has been successful quality with the Belarus National Olympic Committee up of the Tokyo Games, said it had intervened.

“The IOC … is looking into the concern and has asked the NOC for clarification,” it said successful a statement.

Many critics of Belarus' authorities person fled to Poland. Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz said connected Twitter that Tsimanouskaya has been offered a “humanitarian visa and is escaped to prosecute her sporting vocation successful Poland if she truthful chooses.”

Czech Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhanek besides tweeted that the Czech Republic has offered her asylum.

“If she decides to judge it, we’ll bash our maximum to assistance her,” helium wrote.

The Belarus National Olympic Committee has been led for much than 25 years by President Lukashenko and his son, Viktor.

Both Lukashenkos are banned from the Tokyo Olympics by the IOC, which investigated complaints from athletes that they faced reprisals and intimidation successful fallout from protests since past August aft the country’s disputed statesmanlike election.

A spokeswoman for the Belarus Olympic squad did not respond to a petition for comment.

In May, Belarussian authorities were accused of diverting a rider level to Minsk successful bid to detain writer and activistic Raman Pratasevich and his Russian girlfriend.

The elder Lukashenko maintained that determination was a weaponry menace against the level and that’s wherefore a combatant pitchy was scrambled to unit it to land, but European Union leaders denounced it arsenic an enactment of aerial piracy.

Pratasevich, who ran a transmission connected a messaging app utilized to signifier demonstrations against Lukashenko’s rule, near his homeland successful 2019 to effort to flight the scope of the Belarusian KGB and ended up successful Lithuania.

Tsimanouskaya already competed for Belarus connected the archetypal time of way events Friday astatine the National Stadium successful Tokyo. She placed 4th successful her first-round vigor successful the 100 meters, timing 11.47 seconds, and did not advance.

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Associated Press writer Daria Litvinova contributed to this study from Moscow.

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More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2020-tokyo-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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