Brussels, 26/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 26 October the conference of presidents awarded the Sakharov Prize 2012 to the Iranian lawyer, Nasrin Soutoudeh, and her fellow Iranian film director, Jafar Panahi, by unanimous vote, President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz announced. This award “is a message of solidarity and recognition to a woman and a man who have not been bowed by fear and intimidation and who have decided to put the fate of their country before their own”, he said. He added that the conference needed no longer than 3 minutes to make their decision, which shows that the Parliament sincerely wants to distinguish them - although the Belarusian human rights activist, Ales Bialiatski, and the Russian punk group, Pussy Riot, were also in the running. Schulz hoped that the winners would be able to come in person to collect their prize at the official award ceremony on 12 December, and he called on the Iranian authorities to facilitate their travel. Schulz stated that the award of this prize should be interpreted as a “very clear no” to the Iranian regime, which does not respect fundamental freedoms.
The co-leaders of the Greens/EFA Group, Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Rebecca Harms, called on the regime to put an end to the constant repression against human rights activists and the opposition, and for the release of all political prisoners. The leader of the ALDE Group, Guy Verhofstadt, said that he was “particularly pleased that this prize has been awarded for this first time to Iranian citizens”. “The prize represents the millions of Iranians who want to lead their life without an authoritarian government which tells them what to do and think. The Sakharov Prize gives a voice to the Iranian people who are oppressed by their own government”, said EPP members Elmar Brok and José Ignacio Salafranca (our translation throughout).
Nasrin Soutoudeh, a 49-year-old lawyer specialised in human rights, was arrested in September 2010 on charges of propaganda and conspiring to harm national security. She was placed in solitary confinement. She has recently begun a hunger strike to protest against the state's harassment of her family. The films of Jafar Panahi, a 52-year-old film director, screenwriter and editor, often focus on the hardships faced by children, the impoverished and women in Iran. He won the Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1995 for his film “White Balloon”. He was arrested in March 2010, sentenced to 6 years in prison and banned from making films or leaving Iran for 20 years. (CG/transl.fl)