Brussels, 23/09/2008 (Agence Europe) - Put forward by the Greens/EFA and ALDE political groups, Chinese dissident Hu Jia received the largest number of votes on Monday 22 September among those presented for the Sakharov Prize 2008, during the vote by the parliamentary foreign affairs and development committees. Greens/EFA President Daniel Cohn-Bendit, who was delighted with the voting result, said on Tuesday 23 September that it would be a “coup d'état” if the conference of EP presidents were to put another candidate forward. Thanks to joint action by the two groups “we have won the day over the Sakharov Prize”, the president of the Liberals, Graham Watson, said that same day. He promised that a scandal would be raised should the two other groups seek to overthrow this choice. He stressed the symbolic nature of this choice the same year as the Olympic Games were held in Beijing.
Known by the pseudonym, “Freeborn”, Hu Jia is a Chinese activist for civil rights, protection of the environment and defence of those suffering from HIV/AIDS. At the end of 2007, shortly after giving evidence on the situation of human rights in China at the European Parliament, he was arrested and sentenced to three and a half years in prison for incentive to subversion against the authority of the state. The two other candidates still running for the Sakharov 2008 award for freedom of spirit are: - Alexandre Kozouline, head of the Belarus Social Democrat Party and candidate for the 2006 presidential elections; - and Abbot Apollinaire Malu Malu, President of the independent electoral committee of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The conference of presidents will take its decision on 16-23 October. The prize - in its 20th edition this year - will be awarded on 17 December in Strasbourg. (M.B./transl.jl)