The European Parliament revealed the shortlist of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. The three contenders are: a Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was assassinated in February 2015 in Moscow near the Kremlin walls, a Saudi blogger Raif Badawi and an electoral umbrella group of opposition parties from Venezuela “Democratic Unity Roundtable”. “The choice of Boris Nemtsov, who was killed in Russia for his opposition activities, shows our dissatisfaction with the human rights situation in Russia,” said Elmar Brock, head of the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee.
The winner will be selected by the President of the European Parliament and faction leaders and announced on October 29.
The first winners of the Sakharov Prize awarded by the European Parliament European Parliament in 1988 were Nelson Mandela and a Soviet dissident Anatoly Marchenko, who died in prison in December 1986.