Brussels, 15/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 15 October, the MEPs of the committee on foreign affairs, the committee on development and the human rights sub-committee named Raef Badawi, the democratic opposition in Venezuela and Boris Nemtsov as the finalists for the Sakharov human rights prize 2015.
The militant Saudi blogger, Raef Badawi, who has been sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment, 1,000 lashes and a heavy fine for having insulted Islamic values, was put forward by the S&D, Greens and ECR parties. The Russian political opposition member, Boris Nemtsov, who was murdered in February, was proposed posthumously by the ALDE group. Finally, the EPP group and ALDE members Fernando Maura Barandiaran (Spain) and Dita Charanzova (Czech Republic) nominated the democratic opposition in Venezuela, the 'Mesa de la Unidad Democratica', and political prisoners.
The other shortlisted candidates include the Somalian activist Edna Adan Ismail, who is fighting for the abolition of female genital mutilation, the Ukrainian military pilot being held in Russia, Nadiya Savchenko, and, jointly, whistleblowers Antoine Deltour, who revealed Luxleaks, Stéphanie Gibaud, who brought to light the tax evasion and money laundering practices of the Swiss bank UBS AG, and Edward Snowden, who revealed many details regarding certain mass surveillance programmes.
The winner will be chosen at the conference of the presidents of the political groups of the European Parliament on 29 October. The 2015 Sakharov Prize will be awarded on 16 December, at a ceremony to take place at the plenary session of the European Parliament. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)