Vienna (AFP)

The plane of the Belarusian Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, who refused to return to her country for fear for her safety, landed at Vienna airport on Wednesday, a priori a simple stopover on the road to Poland which granted her a humanitarian visa.

The Austrian Airlines aircraft, which had taken off earlier from Tokyo, landed on the tarmac shortly after 3:00 p.m. local time (1:00 p.m. GMT), an AFP journalist noted.

A black VIP vehicle, followed by two police cars, awaited the 24-year-old athlete to escort him out of sight, while many media were present on the scene.

The young woman, in conflict with the sports authorities of her country, was initially to take a direct flight Tokyo-Warsaw operated by the Polish company LOT.

But she changed her route at the last minute, a new twist in this affair which has dominated the extra-sporting news of the Tokyo Games in recent days.

"According to the information we have, it is expected that she will return to Warsaw this evening," a spokesman for the Austrian Foreign Ministry had previously told AFP.

But she can "of course count on the support of Vienna if she wishes to apply for asylum there", according to the same source, while a government emissary went to meet her, according to official photos where one sees her appear in jeans and a colorful mask.

Krystsina Tsimanouskaya before taking the Tokyo-Vienna flight, August 4, 2021 at Narita airport CHARLY TRIBALLEAU AFP

During her stopover, she will not speak to the press but is expected to speak Thursday in Warsaw, according to the pro-democracy Belarusian opposition.

- Double humanitarian visa -

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.

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

Belarusian athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya during the women's 100m series at the Tokyo Olympics, July 30, 2021 Giuseppe CACACE AFP / Archives

She then took refuge at the Polish Embassy in the Japanese capital.

For security reasons, the Polish authorities did not wish to give any information in advance about his departure.

The government announced on Wednesday that it had also granted a humanitarian visa to the sprinter's husband, who expressed his "gratitude" in a statement to AFP.

The IOC has initiated an official investigation into this matter.

Spokesman Mark Adams said he had received a report from the Belarusian Olympic Committee which is "under evaluation".

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. .

- Suspicious death in Ukraine -

This incident sparked new international condemnations from 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 activist exiled in Ukraine, was found hanged near his home in Kiev, local police said Tuesday, according to whom 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.

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.

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© 2021 AFP