Alies Bialiacki Nominated for Sakharov Prize
Pussy Riot members are among nominees, too.
Belarusian human rights activist Alies Bialiacki and the members of Russian feminist protest group Pussy Riot and are among the European Parliament's five nominees for this year's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
The nomination list, posted Thursday on the European Parliament website, singles out Alies Bialiacki, the jailed chairman of the Viasna human rights center, which has actively reported on Belarusian President Aliaksandr Lukashenka's ongoing crackdown on dissent.
Also nominated ware Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, all facing two-year jail sentences, for what it calls their “courageous, spectacular, and creative” antigovernment protest in a Moscow church.
A decision on the finalist will be made in late October, followed by an award ceremony in December.
Past winners include activists slain during last year's Arab Spring protests and Russia's Memorial rights group.