Strasbourg, 07/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - The Sudanese lawyer from Darfur, Salih Mahmoud Osman, who has declared opposition to the Khartoum regime, is likely to be the next winner of the Sakharov Prize for freedom of opinion. The prize will be awarded during October.
Mr Osman, who is very active in the human rights field and who works in Nyala in Darfur, provides legal assistance for prisoners facing the death penalty and for victims of human rights violations in the Darfur conflict. He has been arrested three times and has spent seven months in prison without any charges against him. He has also taken a stance in favour of deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur.
Mr Osman has the support of a large group of MEPs from all Parliament political groups, beginning with Josep Borrell (PES, Spain), Thierry Cornillet (ALDE, France), Jose Ribeiro i Castro (EPP-ED, Portugal), Frithjof Schmidt (Greens/EFA, Germany) and Jürgen Schröder (EPP-ED,Germany). These five MEPs were in Darfur in July 2007. The PES Group intends to follow closely behind this delegation in its choice of candidate. The Sudanese lawyer has, moreover, been put forward as the official candidate of the ALDE Group. The EPP-ED Group has chosen to defend the candidature of Russian investigational journalist, Anna Politkovskaya, who was assassinated in Moscow in October 2006, and of her newspaper, “Novaya Gazeta”, a newspaper that is generally critical of the Kremlin. The Greens/EFA have decided that Zeng Jinyan, a dissident “blogger”, and her spouse, Hu Jia, a couple that is very actively engaged in the protection of the environment and the fight against AIDS, should be nominated for the Sakharov Prize. In the context of the Olympic Games to be held in Beijing next year, the Greens/EFA thus hope to draw attention to the human rights situation and the general absence of freedom of expression in China. The GUE/NGL Group for its part has decided to support the candidature of the young Afghan national, Joya Malalai, who was suspended from her post as, in order to defend women's rights, she had publicly criticised the Afghan warlords. Finally, the ITS Group will defend the nomination of Patriarch Bartolomei. The vote on a short list of three candidates for this year will be held on 24 September at a joint meeting of the committees on foreign affairs and development. The winner will be chosen by the conference of the presidents of political groups during October. (bc)