October 29, Pozirk. Police have charged veteran activist Nina Bahinskaja with staging an unauthorized protest after she was detained in Minsk with a Belarusian Popular Front sign, Belsat reported.
Bahinskaja’s October 19 protest was remarkable since authorities hoped to avoid any street protests ahead of January’s presidential election.
The 77-year-old activist was detained at the intersection of Kazłoŭ Street and Independence Avenue in downtown Minsk as she headed for a nearby street, where the once-influential opposition force used to have its headquarters.
She was handcuffed and taken to the Saviecki District Police Department. Officers held her for about three hours, but she refused to sign a detention report. The date of the trial is unknown.
Bahinskaja has been taking part in street rallies since 1988. She was a face of the 2020 peaceful protests against voter fraud and police brutality.
In October 2020, Alaksandar Łukašenka publicly advised security forces against arresting Bahinskaja and banning her from city squares. “She’s great, she’s a person of conviction,” he said.
Nevertheless, Bahinskaja was repeatedly arrested and fined. Authorities confiscated her land plot to cover the fines she refused to pay as a matter of principle.
When Bahinskaja took to the street with an opposition flag in 2022, the German newspaper Berliner Morgenpost described her as “the last Belarusian demonstrator.”
