Poland grants humanitarian visa to Belarus Olympic sprinter

Belarus’ authoritarian government has relentlessly targeted anyone even mildly expressing dissent since a presidential election a year ago triggered a wave of unprecedented mass protests

Krystsina Tsimanouskaya: 'I was put under pressure, and they are trying to forcibly take me out of the country without my consent.' Picture: AP

A Belarusian Olympic sprinter plans to seek asylum in Poland, an activist group said, after the athlete alleged that her team’s officials tried to force her to fly home, where she feared she wouldn’t be safe from an autocratic government that recently was accused of diverting a plane in order to arrest a dissident journalist.

Athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya received a humanitarian visa from the Polish embassy in Tokyo, according to a Polish foreign ministry official.