Regarding Belarusian track and field athletes who came to Japan to participate in the Tokyo Olympics and wished to asylum in a third country, the Polish vice minister of foreign affairs announced that he had issued visas to the athletes and accepted asylum.
Belarus national team Christian Chimanouskaya (24), a track and field girl, told police officers and others at Haneda Airport on the 1st that she wanted to asylum in another European country, saying that she did not want to return to her own country. Entered the Polish Embassy in Tokyo.
After this, Poland's Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Psidachi wrote on Twitter on the 2nd, "Chimanouskaya has already obtained a visa with humanitarian consideration. I will do whatever it takes to help her continue her sports life." I made it clear that I accepted it.
Chimanouskaya is expected to leave Japan soon and head to Poland, a neighboring country west of Belarus.
Chimanouskaya told NHK so far that he was instructed to participate in an event that was not originally planned on behalf of other players, and when he wrote his dissatisfaction on SNS, he was likely to be deported as "criticism of the administration". It became. "
Meanwhile, Chimanouskaya's husband told NHK on the 2nd that he has left Belarus and is in the southern neighboring country of Ukraine.
In this regard, local media reported that they needed to evacuate to a safe place to escape pressure from the administration.
Repression of criticism of the administration Athletes also protest
In Belarus, athletes have also protested the crackdown on those who are critical of the administration.
Chimanouskaya is one of them, and in August of last year when the protests of the citizens who complained of fraud in the presidential election were spreading, he stood in the center of many athletes on his Instagram and said, "We should stop fighting the citizens. I have released a photo of a paper with the message "It is."
At that time, security forces were trying to eliminate the protests, resulting in casualties, and Chimanouskaya said on Instagram, "Violence is unacceptable and security forces are illegal. Freedom of speech. I support it, "and criticized the administration.
Last October, the Belarusian Sports Solidarity Foundation, an organization that supports Belarusian athletes, collected the signatures of more than 1,000 athletes and issued a letter calling on the administration to stop violence.
However, Belarus's Lukashenko administration has also increased crackdowns on these athletes, and on the organization's homepage, athletes and coaches who are said to have been removed from the national team or ousted from civil servants because of their participation in protests. Is introduced.