We investigate the origin of radio emission in nearby early-type galaxies using the European VLBI Network (EVN) at 1.4 GHz. The sample included NGC 1277, which was found to have an over-massive black hole of $1.7{ imes}10^{10}M_{odot}$, and four other early-type galaxies in the Perseus cluster. All the sources were detected above $5{sigma}$. They show compact radio cores and high brightness temperatures, $10^7{sim}10^9K$, which implies that radio emission in these objects is non-thermal. While the observed radio luminosities could be consistent with star formation (${sim}1M_{odot}yr^{-1}$), the small source size would imply a specific star formation rate (sSFR) of ${sim}10^6M_{odot}yr^{-1}kpc^{-2}$. Such a high sSFR rules out ongoing star formation. Supernovae (SNe) are ruled out as well because it is unlikely that we see SNe in all galaxies at the same time, and there is no significant radio variability either. The most plausible scenario is that these galaxies show low luminosity AGN activity in the radio, although there is no sign of AGN activity in other bands. If our interpretation is correct, then regular early-type galaxies may harbor active AGN more often than suspected from observations at other wavelengths.