Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya was originally scheduled to leave Japan for Poland on Wednesday. She had previously sought asylum at the Polish Embassy in Tokyo. Refused to board the plane home.
After she said her team took her to the airport against her wishes, she refused to board the plane later on Sunday, which caused a high level of sensation at the Olympics.she Seek protection at the Polish embassy on Monday. Poland provided her with a humanitarian visa.
Wearing a mask, wearing blue jeans, a blue shirt and sunglasses, Zimanusskaya arrived in a police-escorted van at Narita Airport in the eastern part of the Japanese capital. She did not speak to dozens of waiting reporters, and disappeared into the elevator leading to the VIP area. Several officials escorted her and pushed her suitcase.
According to people familiar with the matter, Tsimanouskaya will board LOT Polish Airlines flight 80 to Warsaw, which is scheduled to depart from Narita Airport at 10:20 am (0120 GMT).
The International Olympic Committee said on Tuesday that it has launched a formal investigation into the case and is looking forward to the report of the Belarusian team.
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Brinken accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime of carrying out an intolerable “transnational suppression” on this matter.
The 24-year-old Zimanusskaya was originally scheduled to participate in the women’s 200-meter preliminaries on Monday, but she said that the Belarusian head coach appeared in her room in the athlete’s village on Sunday and told her that she must leave after criticizing team officials.
“I will not return to Belarus,” she told Reuters at the time.
This incident has aroused people’s attention to Belarus. After last year’s election triggered a wave of protests, the police suppressed dissidents. The opposition claimed that the election was meant to keep Lukashenko in power.
The Belarusian authorities characterized the anti-government protesters as criminals or violent revolutionaries supported by the West, and described the actions of their law enforcement agencies as appropriate and necessary.
Vitaly Shishov, a Belarusian activist exiled in Ukraine, Was found dead in the park Earlier on Tuesday, near his home in Kiev, Ukrainian police launched a murder investigation. He led an organization that helped Belarusians escape persecution.
