Nina Bahinskaya fined BYN1225 for ‘walking with a poster’

Prominent civic activist Nina Bahinskaya, 72 was awarded a BYN1225 ($610) fine for ‘walking with a poster,’ Radio Svaboda reports. She was detained in the centre of Minsk on 10 September. The senior was holding the poster 'Repressed Belarus’ to express her protest against the trials of the participants of ‘the Kurapaty Watch’ (the activists are protesting against the restaurant built next to the people’s memorial to the victims of Stalin's purges in the late 1930s) in Kurapaty, a Minsk suburb). Bahinskaya's plan was to walk from Kastrycnickaja Square towards the KGB headquarters but was detained at the intersection of Independence Avenue and Engels Street.

The riot police's attention was drawn by the red swastika interwoven with the hammer and sickle on her poster, Nina Bahinskaya said. She stood trial soon after the detention. Bahinskaya was found guilty of the repeated violation of the rules of mass events. She did not get her poster back.