Tokyo (AFP)

Belarusian Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, in conflict with her country's sports authorities, left Tokyo-Narita airport for Vienna on Wednesday, a stopover most likely before reaching Poland, which granted her a humanitarian visa.

The 24-year-old was originally speculated to take a direct Tokyo-Warsaw flight operated by Polish company LOT on Wednesday.

But she changed her route at the last minute, boarding an Austrian Airlines plane for Vienna, AFP observed at the airport.

She made no statement to the press before her departure, which came shortly after 11:00 a.m. local time (02:00 GMT).

The sprinter claimed 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.

Representatives of the Belarusian Sports Solidarity Foundation (BSSF), an organization supporting athletes in the crosshairs of power in Minsk, were planning to welcome Krystsina Tsimanouskaya upon her arrival in Warsaw, as well as other pro-democracy Belarusian activists.

According to the athlete, her national federation wanted to force her at the last moment to participate in the 4x400-meter relay at the Tokyo Olympics, when she was initially supposed to run the 100 meters and 200 meters, a decision that had outraged her. .

Fearing that she would end up in prison if she returned to Belarus, Krystsina Tsimanouskaya had obtained Sunday evening help from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and police protection while she was at Tokyo-Haneda airport, on the verge of to be repatriated.

Belarusian athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya before boarding her Tokyo-Vienna flight on August 4, 2021 CHARLY TRIBALLEAU AFP

The IOC has initiated an official investigation into the matter, also asking the Belarusian National Olympic Committee for an explanation.

- Suspicious death in Ukraine -

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.

"The Lukashenko regime attempted to commit a new act of transnational repression (...). Such actions violate the Olympic spirit, are an affront to fundamental rights and cannot be tolerated", reacted earlier this week on US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Lukashenko has also been accused in the past of having formed "death squads" to eliminate adversaries.

"The regime of Alexander Lukashenko is reputed to use various methods, often totally illegal (against its detractors), which is why the best is to provide as few details as possible" on the departure of Ms. Tsimanouskaya from Tokyo, had justified Tuesday Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski.

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.

bur-sah-etb-ras / dth

© 2021 AFP