Ethiopian athlete, Feyisa Lilesa, has failed to return to his home country after making an anti-government demonstration following his silver medal in the Rio 2016 Olympics.
Lilesa finished second in the men’s marathon in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday and, as he was passing the finish line, crossed his wrists above his head. The gesture was in solidarity with protesters in Oromia, a region of Ethiopia, who have been involved in deadly clashes with Ethiopian security forces in recent months.
The athlete made the gesture again on the podium during the medal ceremony and said that he feared he would be killed or detained if he returned to Ethiopia.
More than 400 people have been killed during protests by members of the Oromo ethnic group, Ethiopia’s largest ethnicity, which began in November 2015, according to Human Rights Watch.
The Ethiopian government has disputed the death toll.
Lilesa is himself an Oromo and claimed that members of his family have been detained.
Lilesa did not board the plane that left Brazil carrying Ethiopia’s Olympic team on Monday night, AFP reported. Ethiopian state broadcaster Fana Broadcasting Corporation reported on Wednesday that the Olympic team was welcomed back by senior government officials, including sports minister Redwan Hussein, but made no mention of Lilesa’s absence. Government officials reportedly refused to answer any questions about the athlete. Newsweek contacted the Ethiopian Embassy in London on Monday for a comment on Lilesa’s demonstration but is yet to receive a response.
The 26-year-old runner, who said that he has a wife and two children in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, has indicated that he might try to seek asylum in the United States. A crowdfunding campaign set up to support Lilesa has raised almost $120,000 in just three days after being set up on Sunday.
Lilesa’s agent Federico Rosa said that he didn’t think there was “any way” that his client would return to Ethiopia, but said he did not know where the runner was planning to go next. Newsweek contacted Rosa for a comment but had received no reply at the time of publication.
