European Parliament announces candidates for human rights award

STRASBOURG: Exiled Turkish journalist Can Dundar, Crimean Tatar activist Mustafa Dzhemilev and two Yazidi victims of the Islamic State group have been shortlisted for the European Parliament’s prestigious Sakharov human rights prize to be announced.

Named after the dissident Soviet scientist Andrei Sakharov, who died in 1989, the prize is awarded every year to honour individuals who combat intolerance, fanaticism and oppression, often falling foul of their governments as a result.

Last year, the Parliament awarded the prize to Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi, jailed for “insulting” Islam.

In 2014, doctor Denis Mukwege was honoured for his work with thousands of victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The recipient of the 2016 award will be announced by European Parliament President Martin Schulz in Strasbourg after a meeting for the final selection with the presidents of the political groups.

Human rights activist Dzhemilev, a leader of the long oppressed Tartar community in Crimea, was proposed by the main political group in the parliament, the European People’s Party, with the support of the ECR group of British conservatives.

Iraqi activists Nadia Murad and Lamia Haji Bashar, who campaign to protect their Yazidi people and were enslaved by IS, were proposed by the socialists and the liberal group ALDE.

According to UN experts, about 3,200 Yazidis remain in the hands of IS, the majority in Syria.

Among the other nominees was Dundar, the former editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet, Turkey’s top opposition daily, who was sentenced in May to five years and 10 months in prison for allegedly revealing state secrets in a story that infuriated Turkey’s authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Dundar is believed to be in Germany after he was freed earlier this year pending an appeal following his trial.