Belarus Olympics kidnapping: Team officials bundle female sprinter to Tokyo airport

Belarusian Olympic officials allegedly bundled an outspoken female sprinter to an airport in Tokyo to try to force her back home on Sunday after she publicly criticised national coaches in what is feared to be an attempted kidnapping. 

Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, who was due to compete in the women’s 200m race on Monday, told Reuters she did not plan to return to Belarus and had sought the protection of Japanese police at Tokyo’s Haneda airport so she would not have to board the flight. 

‘I will not return to Belarus,’ she told Reuters in a message over Telegram.  

Tsimanouskaya, 24, said coaching staff had come to her room on Sunday and told her to pack. She was taken to the airport before she could run in the 200m and 4x400m relay on Thursday.   

She had previously alleged that she was entered into the relay event on Thursday at short notice by Belarusian officials after some team mates were found to be ineligible to compete. The Belarusian Olympic Committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The sprinter is now in the airport with Japanese police, and, according to Belarus journalist Tadeusz Giczan, wants to apply for asylum in Austria. Dissident journalists said Belarusian state media launched a campaign against her after she criticised Belarus national team’s management on Friday.  

Belarusian athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya talks with a police officer at Haneda international airport in Tokyo

Belarusian athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya is escorted by police officers at Haneda international airport in Tokyo

Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, who was due to compete in the women’s 200 meters on Monday, told Reuters she did not plan to return to her country and that she had sought the protection of Japanese police at Tokyo’s Haneda airport so she would not have to board the flight

Minsk-based journalist Hanna Liubakova said on Twitter: ‘It’s been reported that Kryscina Tsimanouskaya, who publicly criticized the regime and sports officials, is being sent from Tokyo back to Belarus. 

‘Apparently, representatives of the Belarusian national team took her to the airport. It looks like kidnapping’. 

She later posted a video which appeared to show the athlete at the airport, tweeting: ‘Tsimanouskaya was accompanied to the airport by two members of the Belarusian sports delegation. 

‘She is now with the police and volunteers. When asked if she was afraid to fly to #Belarus, Tsimanouskaya answered ‘yes’.’

Tsimanouskaya had previously complained she was entered in the 4x400m relay after some members of the team were found to be ineligible to compete at the Olympics because they had not undergone a sufficient amount of doping tests.  

Belarusian athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya is seen at Haneda international airport in Tokyo

Belarusian athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya is escorted by police officers at Haneda international airport

‘Some of our girls did not fly here to compete in the 4x400m relay because they didn’t have enough doping tests,’ Tsimanouskaya told Reuters from the airport. 

‘And the coach added me to the relay without my knowledge. I spoke about this publicly. The head coach came over to me and said there had been an order from above to remove me.’ 

Tsimanouskaya added she was standing next to Japanese police at the airport and she has reached out to a member of the Belarusian diaspora in Japan to retrieve her at the airport. 

It comes months after Western countries condemned the government of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko after it scrambled a Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jet to escort a commercial passenger plane to Minsk. 

Ryanair flight FR4978 had been flying from Athens in Greece to Vilnius in Lithuania in May when it was forced to make an emergency landing in Minsk amid fake reports of an IED on board.

Authorities then arrested Belarussian activist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend Sofia Sapega, 23, on arrival in Minsk.  

Jailed journalist Roman Protasevich last appeared at a press conference in Minsk in June, telling reporters he felt ‘wonderful’

Putin was virtually the only supporter of Belarus dictator Lukashenko over the hijacking of a Ryanair passenger plane earlier this month which was escorted to Minsk by a fighter jet and forced to land so authorities could arrest a dissident journalist

Protasevich was then seen on June 4 in a tearful interview aired on state media in which he confessed to calling for protests last year and praised Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko. 

The incident prompted the EU to ban Belarusian airlines, urge EU airlines not to cross Belarusian airspace and threaten tough economic sanctions on Lukashenko’s Kremlin-backed regime. 

The British government instructed  all UK planes to cease flying over Belarus. Some countries also imposed sanctions against Belarusian officials over a crackdown on demonstrators and a presidential election last year that the opposition said was massively rigged.

Putin is the only world leader who defended Lukashenko over the hijacking. Russia promised Belarus a £1.06billion loan last year as part of Moscow’s efforts to stabilise its neighbour and longstanding ally. Minsk received a first installment of £352million in October.

Following talks in Sochi, the former-Soviet superpower said it will move ahead with a second £352million loan to Belarus.

In May, the head of NATO linked the Kremlin to the hijack of the Ryanair jet by Belarus having previously described the incident as a ‘state-sponsored hijacking’.

In response to the incident today, Haneda police said there was no one immediately available to comment.