TOKYO (AP) — Poland has granted a visa to a Belarusian Olympic sprinter who said she feared for her safety and that her team's officials tried to force her to fly home.
In Belarus, the autocratic government has been accused of diverting a flight to arrest a dissident journalist.
A Polish Foreign Ministry official says runner Krystsina Tsimanouskaya received a humanitarian visa from the Polish embassy in Tokyo on Monday.
The Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation told The Associated Press that the group bought her a plane ticket to Warsaw for the coming days.
The current standoff apparently began after Tsimanouskaya criticized how officials were managing her team. That set off a massive backlash in state-run media back home, where authorities relentlessly crack down on government critics.