Deutsche Welle, 26 October 2012
The
European Parliament has named two Iranians the winners of the Sakharov freedom
prize. The filmmaker and human rights lawyer take their place among previous
laureates, including Nelson Mandela and Aung Sang Suu Kyi.
After
selecting five nominees, then narrowing the list down to three, the European
Union announced the winners of 2012 of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of
Thought. The European Parliament's official website revealed around midday on
Friday that the Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi and human rights lawyer Nasrin
Soutoudeh were this year's recipients.
The Russian
band Pussy Riot and Belarusian human rights activist Ales Bialiatski had been
shortlisted for the prize earlier in October. Members of the European
Parliament had also nominated Joseph Francis, whose center for legal aid helps
victims of Pakistan's blasphemy laws, and the imprisoned Rwandan opposition
politicians Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, Deogratias Mushazidi, Bernard Ntaganda.
Both Panahi
and Soutoudeh have garnered attention for their work in Iran. The first has
become known as an influential filmmaker, winning the Camera d'Or at the 1995
Cannes Film Festival. "This Is Not a Film" was smuggled out of Iran
to the Cannes Film Festival via a USB drive baked into a cake. Panahi is
currently banned from making films and faces a six-year sentence.
"[Panahi's]
films bear witness to day-to-day reality in Iran; for us he embodies the fight
against official repression and fight for freedom ad human rights", said
Member of the European Parliament Véronique de Keyser in her recommendation for
the nomination.
Soutoudeh
is currently serving a prison sentence. Following the disputed presidential
elections in Iran in 2009, the rights lawyer worked with opposition activists
who had been jailed.
"It is
high time that Sakharov prize went to Iranians," said MEP Marietje Schaake
in her nomination of the lawyer. "Ms. Sotoudeh is an excellent candidate;
a human rights lawyer who has defended juveniles, women and prisoners of
concience, but is now in prison herself."
Arab Spring
activists Ali Farzat, Asma Mahfouz and Ahmed al-Sanusi won the prize in 2011.
Panahi and
Soutoudeh are to receive 50,000 euros ($64,500) as part of the prize. The
formal award ceremony is scheduled to take place in Strasbourg, France on
December 12.
The
European Parliament has been awarding the Sakharov Prize since 1988 to
individuals who have contributed to the fight for human rights and democracy
around the globe.
Andrei
Sakharov (1921-89), whose name the award bears, was a Russian nuclear
theoretical physicist. Prompted by his involvement in the development of the
thermonuclear bomb, the prominent physicist became vocal during the late 1960s
about issues such as the social responsibility of scientists and arms. Sakharov
received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975 for his social activism in the former
Soviet Union. The Soviet government placed Sakharov in internal exile in the
city of Gorky, which was off limits for foreigners in 1980. There he
remained until 1986.
kms/pfd (AFP, EPD, KNA)
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