Saudi Blogger Raif Badawi Awarded Sakharov Human Rights Prize

Saudi Blogger Raif Badawi, whose flogging sentence caused an outcry, has been awarded the European Parliament's Sakharov human rights prize.

Parliament President Martin Schulz urged Saudi King Salman "to free him, so he can accept the prize".

Raif Badawi was sentenced to 10 years in jail and 1,000 lashes in Saudi Arabia for "insulting Islam".

Raif Badawi, author of the website Free Saudi Liberals, was convicted of insulting Islam in 2012 and fined £175,000.
He received the first 50 lashes of his sentence in January, but subsequent floggings have been postponed


Note

The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought has been awarded by the European Parliament since 1988 to individuals or organisations for their contribution to the fight for human rights and democracy.
It is named after the Soviet scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov.

Previous winners include Nelson Mandela, Myanmar activist Aung San Suu Kyi and Pakistani education campaigner Malala Yousafzai.

The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, named after Societ Scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov  was established in December 1988 by the European Parliament as a means to honour individuals or organisations who have dedicated their lives to the defence of human rights and freedom of thought

The Sakharov Prize is usually awarded annually on or around December 10th, the day on which the UN General Assembly ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948

A shortlist of nominees is drawn up by the Foreighn Affairs Committee and the Development Committee, with the winner announced in October every year

The prize is accompanied by a monetary award of €50,000

Winners Details

Year	Recipient	Details
1988	Nelson Mandela(South Africa)	Anti-apartheid activist and later President of South Africa
1988	Anatoly Marchenko(Posthumously)	Soviet dissident, author and human rights activist
1989	Alexander Dubcek(Czech Rep)	Slovak politician, attempted to reform the communist regime during the Prague Spring
1990	Aung San Suu Kyi(Myanmar)	Opposition politician and a former General Secretary of the National League for Democracy
1991	Adem Demaci(Kosovo)	Kosovo Albanian Politician and long-term political prisoner
1992	Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo	Association of Argentine mothers whose children disappeared during the Dirty War
1993	Oslobodenje(Bosnia&Herzegovina)	Popular newspaper, continued to publish after its office building was destroyed in Sarajevo
1994	Taslima Nasrin(Bangladesh)	Ex-doctor, feminist author
1995	Leyla Zana(Turkey)	A female politician of Kurdish descent from Eastern Turkey, who was imprisoned for 10 years for speaking her native language of Kurdish in the Turkish Parliament
1996	Wei Jingsheng(PRC)	An activist in the Chinese Democracy Movement
1997	Salima Ghezali(Algeria)	Journalist and writer, an activist of women's rights, human rights and democracy in Algeria
1998	Ibrahim Rugova(Kosovo)	Albanian politician, the first President of Kosovo
1999	Xanana Gusmao(East Timor)	Former militant who was the first President of East Timor
2000	iBasta Ya(Spain)	Organisation uniting individuals of various political positions against terrorism
2001	Nurit Peled-Elhanan(Israel)	Peace activist
2001	Izzat Ghazzawi(Palestine)	Writer, professor.
2001	Dom Zacarias Kamwenho(Angola)	Archbishop and peace activist
2002	Oswaldo Paya(Cuba)	Political activist and dissident
2003	Kofi Annan(Ghana) & UN	Nobel Peace Prize recipient and seventh Secretary-General of the United Nation
2004	Belarussian Association of Journalists	NGO "aiming to ensure freedom of speech and rights of receiving and distributing information and promoting professional standards of journalism"
2005	Ladies in White(Cuba)	Opposition movement, relatives of jailed dissidents
2005	Reporters Without Borders	France-based non-governmental organisation advocating freedom of the press
2005	Hauwa Ibrahim(Nigeria)	Human rights lawyer
2006	Alaksandar Milinkievic(Belarus)	Politician chosen by United Democratic Forces of Belarus as the joint candidate of the opposition in the presidential elections of 2006
2007	Salih Mahmoud Osman(Sudan)	Human rights lawyer
2008	Hu Jia(PRC)	Activist and dissident
2009	Memorial(Russia)	International civil rights and historical society
2010	Guillermo Farinas(Cuba)	Doctor, journalist and political dissident
2011	Asmaa Mahfouz(Egypt),Ahmed al-Senussi(Libya), Razan Zaitounech(Syria),Ali Farzat (Syria)and Mohamed Bouazizi of Tunisia(Posthumously)	Five representatives of the Arab people, in recognition and support of their drive for freedom and human rights.
2012	Jafar Panahi,Nasrin Sotoudeh	Iranian activists, Sotoudeh is a lawyer and Panahi is a film director.
2013	Malala Yousafzai(Pakistan)	Campaigner for women's rights and education

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