“This award is for the Ukrainians who are fighting on the ground, for those who have had to flee, for those who have lost relatives and friends,” parliament speaker Roberta Metsola said in Strasbourg on Wednesday. Also nominated were imprisoned Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and the Colombian Truth Commission.
Ceremony on December 14 in Strasbourg
The prize for the Ukrainian people, represented by its president Volodymyr Zelensky and other elected representatives, as well as civil society, is endowed with 50,000 euros. The EU Parliament will present the prize on 14 December in Strasbourg during the last plenary session of the year.
Last year the imprisoned Russian opposition figure Alexej Navalny was honored with it. His daughter received the award in Strasbourg, which is named after the Soviet dissident and physicist Andrei Sakharov, who died in 1989.
“Today we recognize the achievements of the Ukrainian people for our universal and European values,” said CDU member Michael Gahler. The Conservative EPP Group, the Social Democrats, the Liberals and the Nationalist European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) each nominated the Ukrainian people or Zelenskiy.
The Colombian Truth Commission
The left-wing faction had nominated the Colombian truth commission. From 2017 to June of this year, the commission investigated human rights violations during the decades-long armed conflict between the guerrilla organization FARC, right-wing paramilitary groups and the military in Colombia. According to official figures, nine million people were directly affected by the violence and were displaced, killed or missing.
Julian Assange
Assange, imprisoned in the UK, was nominated by a group of 41 MPs. He faces up to 175 years in prison in the US for publishing about 700,000 confidential documents about US military activities in Iraq and Afghanistan as of 2010 on the Wikileaks website. Among them was explosive information about the killing of civilians and the mistreatment of prisoners.
(AFP)
Source: Blick
I’m Tim David and I work as an author for 24 Instant News, covering the Market section. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism, my mission is to provide accurate, timely and insightful news coverage that helps our readers stay informed about the latest trends in the market. My writing style is focused on making complex economic topics easy to understand for everyone.
