Relief for Krystsina Tsimanouskaya.
The Belarusian Olympic sprinter, in conflict with the sports authorities of her country, left Tokyo-Narita airport for Vienna on Wednesday morning.
She made a stopover there before joining Poland, which granted her a humanitarian visa.
"According to the information we have, it is expected that she will return to Warsaw this evening," said a spokesman for the Austrian Foreign Ministry.
It was initially assumed that the 24-year-old would take a direct Tokyo-Warsaw flight operated by Polish company LOT. But she changed her route at the last minute, boarding an Austrian Airlines plane for Vienna. She made no statement to the press prior to her departure, which came shortly after 11:00 a.m. local time (02:00 GMT).
The sprinter claimed on Sunday to have escaped forced repatriation to Belarus, a few days after openly criticizing the athletics federation of her country in the middle of the Tokyo Olympics.
She had been confined since Monday at the Polish embassy in Tokyo, without speaking to the media.
She had left the embassy early Wednesday in a car with tinted windows, so it was not possible to identify her for sure.
For security reasons, the Polish authorities did not wish to give any information in advance about his departure from Tokyo.
See also Belarusian sprinter threatened with repatriation: the illustration of a country "in a state of panic"
Visa granted to the sprinter's husband
Representatives of the Belarusian Sports Solidarity Foundation (BSSF), an organization supporting athletes in the crosshairs of power in Minsk, expected to welcome Krystsina Tsimanouskaya upon his arrival in Warsaw, as well as other Belarusian pro-democracy activists.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said he spoke to the sprinter.
“Poland will continue to actively support the entire Belarusian nation, and the persecuted opposition activists,” he wrote on Facebook.
In addition, the Polish government said on Wednesday that it had granted a humanitarian visa to Krystsina Tsimanouskaya's husband;
“I can add that at that time Ms. Tsimanouskaya's husband also obtained a Polish humanitarian visa,” Piotr Müller, the spokesman for the Polish government, told reporters.
The athlete was going to be repatriated
According to the athlete, her national federation wanted to force her at the last moment to compete in the 4 x 400m relay at the Tokyo Olympics, when she was initially supposed to run the 100m and 200m, a decision that she had indignant.
Fearing to end up in prison if she returned to Belarus, Krystsina Tsimanouskaya had obtained Sunday evening the help of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and police protection while she was at Tokyo-Haneda airport, on the verge of to be repatriated.
The IOC has launched an official investigation into the matter, also asking the Belarusian National Olympic Committee for an explanation.
This incident sparked international reactions condemning Belarus, a former Soviet republic ruled with an iron fist by President Alexander Lukashenko since 1994 and whose son is the head of the National Olympic Committee.
The pro-democracy movement in Belarus, which had become massive a year ago, is severely repressed by the authorities.
Thousands of opponents have been arrested or had to go into exile.
Vitali Chychov, a Belarusian pro-democracy activist exiled in Ukraine, was found hanged near his home in Kiev, local police said Tuesday, according to which it could be a "murder camouflaged as suicide".
In May, Belarusian authorities arrested exiled opposition journalist Roman Protassevich after hijacking the airliner he was on, sparking global outcry.
According to reports in media, the Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, is flying from Tokyo to Vienna on board flight # OS52https: //t.co/yLmK3AWSSc
Map shows great circle route to destination.
Filled flight plan is outside of Belarus airspace.
pic.twitter.com/OHtUDhxu41
- Flightradar24 (@ flightradar24) August 4, 2021
Krystsina Tsimanouskaya also flew through Belarusian airspace before landing in the Austrian capital;
obviously trouble-free.
