Belarus opens case against a 78-year-old activist who became a symbol of the pro-democracy movement

TALLINN, Estonia — Authorities in Belarus opened a criminal case against a 78-year-old activist who became the face of the country's pro-democracy protests in 2020, a rights organization said Tuesday.

Retired geologist Nina Bahinskaya was charged with repeatedly violating Belarus' laws on holding and organizing protests, Belarus' Viasna human rights center said.

Authorities accused Bahinskaya of repeatedly walking the streets of the Belarusian capital displaying symbols striped with white, red and white: the same colors used by Belarus' pro-democracy opposition. If found guilty, the activist faces up to three years in prison.

Bahinskaya is one of the most recognizable faces of Belarus' pro-democracy movement, which reached its peak during mass protests in the summer of 2020, shortly after the country's authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, was declared president for a sixth consecutive term.

Observers widely condemned the vote as rigged. In March, Lukashenko was sworn in to a seventh term.

Bahinskaya's defiance and caustic tongue quickly has made her a popular opposition figure. When told by police in 2020 that she was violating a government ban on unauthorized demonstrations, she simply responded, ''I'm taking a walk'' — a snappy reply that was adopted by thousands and chanted at demonstrations.

''I noticed that the riot police more rarely beat protesters when they see elderly people among them,'' she told The Associated Press at the time. ''So I come out to protest as a defender, an observer and a witness. I'm psychologically and intellectually stronger than the police. Even among those who detained me, there were people who respected me.''

The 2020 protests triggered a wave of police violence from Belarusian security services, and political repression that has engulfed the country of 9.5 million people.

More than 65,000 people have been arrested, thousands have been beaten by police, and independent media and nongovernmental organizations have been shut down and outlawed, prompting condemnation and sanctions from the West.

Belarus holds about 1,200 political prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski. At least six political prisoners have died in prison, according to human rights activists.

Bahinskaya has been previously detained on multiple occasions, collecting fines totaling 7,200 Belarusian rubles (about $2,400).

As part of the case against her, Bahinskaya was detained in early May and taken for a forced psychiatric examination, Viasna said. In April, U.N. experts reported that Belarusian authorities had resumed the Soviet practice of forced psychiatric treatment as a punishment for political dissent, and that at least 33 cases of punitive psychiatry had already been recorded against political prisoners.

''Bahinskaya is a symbol of resistance to totalitarianism within the country, and it is important for the authorities to break her,'' Viasna representative Pavel Sapelka told the AP. ''This is a show case against an elderly person who has dedicated her entire life to the fight for freedom.''

Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who lives and works in exile in Lithuania, also condemned the case.

''Today, the regime is still afraid of Nina Bahinskaya's courage,'' Tsikhanouskaya said. ''For decades, Nina has stood up to tyranny.''