The Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation (BSSF), an association of Belarusian athletes in opposition to dictator Alexandr Lukashenko, has appealed to the Management Board of the European Cycling Union to withdraw Lukashenko’s regime from hosting the European Track Cycling Championships.

Athletes Germany joined the call, signed by the former swimming world champion Aljaksandra Herassimenja, who was persecuted by regime justice, and the handball manager Aljaksandr Apeikin, who was also persecuted.

Christoph Becker

Sports editor.

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    At the same time, the German athletes' association called for an end to criminal prosecution and the physical and psychological reprisals and imprisonment of Belarusian athletes.

    "Unfortunately, the threatening human rights and security situation in Belarus has not only been known since the shocking aircraft hijacking last weekend," said Maximilian Klein, representative for international sports policy at Athleten Germany.

    "International cycling had a long time for alternative plans." On Thursday, the UEC leadership wants to decide whether to postpone the EM in Minsk, which is scheduled for June 23-27.

    No athletes to Minsk

    After the International Olympic Committee (IOC) imposed sanctions on Lukashenko in December 2020 and IOC President Thomas Bach declared that he did not expect Belarus to be awarded any world championships, the European Cycling Federation (UEC) was repeatedly urged for months to choose another host. The Association of German Cyclists announced on Tuesday that it would not send any athletes to Minsk. The Dutch team joined the waiver.

    Herassimenja and Apeikin should be tried in Belarus, they are, like other athletes who campaigned for the democracy movement after the fake presidential election last August, as enemies of the regime.

    In the past few months, according to Athleten Deutschland, the BSSF has documented more than 70 cases in which athletes were victims of reprisals by the Lukashenko regime.

    The activists pay a high price for this: Apeikin and Herassimenja, who are both abroad, are wanted with an arrest warrant, similar to Roman Protassevich, who was kidnapped from the Ryanair flight FR4978, and face a prison sentence of up to five years;

    In addition, like many other BSSF employees, there were raids on their homes.

    The regime's repression increased again after the activists successfully urged sponsors of the ongoing ice hockey world championship to withdraw support from the planned co-host Minsk. In November, independent Belarusian media investigated that the President of the Belarusian Ice Hockey Federation, Dmitry Baskov, was allegedly involved in the fatal attack on opposition member Roman Bondarenko.