Lukashenko: Ryanair plane diversion is legal 4:04
(CNN) -
Belarusian sprinter Kristina Timanovskaya is "safe" and now it seems likely that she will seek asylum in a third country after she refused to board a flight from Tokyo, saying she was being forced to return against her will at her home country, where she was afraid of being arrested.
On Sunday night, the 24-year-old Olympian was transferred from Tokyo's Haneda airport and "secured by the police in a special shelter," said Anatol Kotau of the Belarusian Sports Solidarity Foundation, which represents athletes repressed by the Belarusian authorities.
Belarusian athlete Kristina Timanovskaya speaks with a police officer at Haneda International Airport in Tokyo, Japan, on August 1.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Monday that Timanovskaya spent the night in an airport hotel and is in the hands of the Japanese authorities.
Committee spokesman Mark Adams told a daily press conference that the IOC asked the Belarusian National Olympic Committee for a full written report on the situation.
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"We will speak with her again this morning to understand what the next steps might be and what she wants to do, and we will support her in that decision," Adams said, adding that the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) is involved. in your case.
Timanovskaya was due to compete in the women's 200 meters at the Tokyo Olympics on Monday, but said representatives of the Belarusian national team tried to force her back to her home country after she criticized national sports authorities for entering her. in the 4x400 meter relay without your consent.
Kotau, who is in direct contact with Timanovskaya, said team officials went to the Olympic Village on Sunday afternoon and asked him to "pack his belongings as the decision had been made for him to return to Minsk."
He was scheduled to depart on a 10:50 pm flight to Istanbul, but upon arriving at the airport, Timanovskaya approached a Japanese police officer and asked him to apply for political asylum, Kotau said.
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"I am afraid that I may be imprisoned in Belarus," Timanovskaya said in an interview with the Belarusian sports news site Tribuna on Sunday.
"I am not afraid of being fired or kicked out of the national team. I am concerned for my safety. And I think that at the moment it is not safe for me in Belarus. I did nothing, but I was deprived of the right to participate in the race of 200 meters and they wanted to send me home. "
During the Cold War, numerous athletes defected from the Soviet Union and the communist countries of the eastern bloc during major sports competitions abroad.
Although such acts have become rarer since the fall of the Soviet Union, defections from other nations continue to occur.
Last month, 20-year-old Ugandan weightlifter Julius Ssekitoleko disappeared after leaving a note saying that his life in Uganda was too difficult and that he wanted to work in Japan.
He was found and transferred to police custody.
Several African Olympians were reported to have disappeared during the 2012 London Games. Eritrean flag runner Weynay Ghebresilasie was among those seeking asylum in the UK.
However, unlike these athletes, Timanovskaya did not appear to depart with the intention of defecting for political reasons and instead appears to have been forced to act after speaking out against an official decision to include her in a race she had not run. before.
Sports and politics in Belarus
Timanovskaya did not say exactly why she feared being jailed, but Belarusian athletes have faced retaliation, detained and excluded from national teams for criticizing the government after last year's massive protests against strongman Alexander Lukashenko.
Thousands of people were arrested in the protests, which were brutally repressed by the authorities amid widespread reports of abuse and torture.
The Belarusian leader has ruled the country for 27 years and was in charge of the country's National Olympic Committee for decades before his eldest son, Viktor, took office in February.
However, the IOC refused to recognize Lukashenko's son, saying in a statement that the Belarusian Olympic Committee "had not adequately protected Belarusian athletes from political discrimination."
In December, the IOC banned both Lukashenko and his son from attending the Tokyo Games.
On Sunday, Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya called on the IOC and the Japanese authorities to guarantee Timanovskaya's safety and investigate the performance of the Belarusian Olympic Committee.
He referred to the arrest of a dissident journalist who was arrested after his Ryanair flight from Greece to Lithuania was diverted and forced to land in Belarus in May.
Belarusian athlete Kristina Timanovskaya is escorted by police officers at Haneda International Airport in Tokyo, Japan, on August 1.
"The hijacking of the Ryanair plane by the regime was just the beginning of Lukashenko's international terror. They kidnapped Pratasevich and Sapega, they tried to kidnap the Belarusian athlete Krystsina Tsymanouskaya. I call on the authorities and the IOC to guarantee the safety of all Belarusian athletes, "Tikhanovskaya said in a tweet.
The Belarus Sports Solidarity Foundation (BSSF) was formed in August 2020 during anti-government protests against the disputed re-election of Lukashenko, who has held power in the Eastern European nation since 1994. It provides legal and financial support to athletes who have been targeted for expressing their political views.
BSSF's Kotau said Timanovskaya will decide on Monday where to apply for asylum.
So far he has received statements from Japan, Poland and the Czech Republic, each of which offers him visas.
Timanovskaya spoke out against Belarusian sports officials
Timanovskaya told Belarusian sports outlet Tribuna that she had never competed in the 400 meters and was "outraged" by the decision to include her in the relay event.
"Never in my life would I react so harshly if they approached me in advance, explained the situation to me and found out if I can run 400 meters and if I am ready. But they decided to do everything behind my back despite the fact that I tried to find out this information but I was just ignored, "she wrote in an Instagram post on Friday.
While his comments do not appear to be political, his apparent criticism of an official decision touched a nerve in a country where dissent is increasingly punished, especially since last year's elections.
After recording a video on Instagram expressing his frustrations, he said that "(team officials) started calling me with threats and demanding that I delete the video if I wanted to continue in sports. At first, I refused to delete it for a long time, but then I did, so they stop calling me. "
The Belarusian Olympic Committee said on Sunday that Timanovskaya was withdrawn from the Games due to her "emotional and psychological state," a claim that the athlete disputes.
"According to the conclusion of the doctors, due to the emotional and psychological state of the Belarusian track and field athlete Kristina Timanovskaya, the coaching staff of the national track and field team decided to stop the athlete's performance at the XXXII Olympic Games," he said the committee in a statement on its Facebook page.
"Therefore, the athlete's application to participate in the 200-meter qualifying races and the 4x400-meter relay has been withdrawn," he added.
Timanovskaya said that a psychologist came to speak to her in a way that she described as "nonsense."
"No doctor came near me. No one examined me," he said.
"I have a good psychological state, even though such a situation was happening. I am holding on normally, I have no health problems, trauma, mental problems. I was ready to run."
Timanovskaya said that Yuri Moisevich, the head coach of the national athletics team, told him that "this issue is no longer at the level of the (athletics) federation, nor at the level of the Ministry of Sports, but at a higher level." .
"That she should be eliminated from the Olympics, returned home, because I'm on the path to team performance," he said.
According to the BSSF, Timanovskaya's husband left Belarus and is in a "safe place".
CNN has contacted Timanovksaya, the Belarusian National Olympic Team and the Belarusian Embassy in Tokyo for more information, but has received no response.
CNN's Gawon Bae, Chandler Thornton, Mohammed Tawfeeq, and Olga Pavlova contributed to this report.
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