Berlin Calling on Minsk to Respect Athletes' Rights in Light of Timanovskaya Incident

BERLIN (Sputnik) - The German government is calling on the Belarusian authorities to respect the rights and freedoms of its citizens, including athletes, the foreign ministry's spokeswoman, Maria Adebahr, said on Monday in light of the incident with Belarusian Olympic sprinter Kristina Timanovskaya.

"We condemn regularly their treatment of the civil society. We strongly condemn bullying and intimidation of independent media and the civil society, which certainly includes athletes. We are steadily calling on the Belarusian authorities to respect the key democratic rights, including media freedom and freedom of opinion, this applies to all of the Belarusian citizens, including athletes," Adebahr said at a briefing.

Later on Monday, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz said that Timanovskaya received a Polish humanitarian visa.

"Kryscina Tsimanouskaya, a Belarusian athlete, is already in direct contact with Polish diplomats in Tokyo. She has received a humanitarian Visa. Poland will do whatever is necessary to help her to continue her sporting career. Poland always stands for Solidarity," Przydacz wrote on Twitter.

Anatoly Kotov, a member of Belarus' opposition National Anti-Crisis Management movement, said that Timanovskaya will arrive in Poland later this week.

Earlier in the day, the Japanese authorities confirmed to the Czech Republic that Belarusian Olympic sprinter Kristina Timanovskaya received Prague's asylum offer.

On Sunday, the athlete released a video via social media claiming that Belarusian authorities were "forcibly" trying to make her return to her home country. She asked the International Olympic Committee to intervene. The National Olympic Committee of Belarus said that the coaching staff of the Belarusian athletics team decided to send the sprinter home due to her emotional and psychological state.

Timanovskaya herself claimed that the Belarusian Olympic Committee had decided to send her back to Belarus because she complained on Instagram about getting scheduled to run in the 4x400m relay after some members of the Belarusian team were found to be ineligible to compete due to insufficient doping testing.