Strasbourg, 14/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatski, Joseph Frances from Pakistan, Rwandan opposition representatives Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, Déogratias Mushayidi and Bernard Ntaganda, members of the Pussy Riot Russian punk group, and Nasrin Sotoudeh and Jafar Panahi from Iran have been put forward by MEPs for the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize 2012.
The S&D, ALDE and Greens/EFA groups, and 13 other MEPs including the leader of the foreign affairs committee, Elmar Brok, support the Iranian lawyer and human rights advocate Nasrin Sotoudeh, arrested in September 2010 on charges of spreading propaganda and conspiring to harm state security, and the Iranian film director Jafar Panahi known for films with a humanistic perspective on life in Iran. Nominated by the ECR Group, Joseph Frances from Pakistan is the founder and director of the Center for Legal Aid, Assitance and Settlement (CLAAS) which addresses the needs of victims of Pakistan's blasphemy laws.
Ales Bialiatski, the human rights defender from Belarus and founder of the Viasna Human Rights Center, who is currently in prison, is supported by 83 MEPs. The Pussy Riot Russian punk group is nominated by 46 MEPs - the punk group being represented by its three members who were arrested and sentenced to two years of prison camp for a prayer, in a church, against the Russian president - Nadezhda Andreyevna Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alyokhina, and who have brought to light the human rights situation in Russia. Lastly, Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, Déogratias Mushayidi and Bernard Ntaganda - three representatives of the Rwandan opposition who are currently in prison for having tried to stop the cycle of violence in their country by fostering dialogue and reconciliation, are supported by 42 MEPs.
The Sakharov Prize 2012 will be awarded on 12 December. A minimum of 40 MEPs or a political group can nominate a candidate for the prize. (CG/transl.fl)