Sakharov Prize: who claims the highest human rights award in the EU
16 October 17:02
On Thursday, October 16, members of the European Parliament’s two committees on foreign affairs and development presented a shortlist of three groups of candidates for the Andrei Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2025. The announcement was published on the website of the European Parliament, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
According to the results of the outgoing year, the following have been nominated for the prize, which is awarded annually, in particular, for supporting freedom of expression and democratic values: belarusian journalist Andrzej Poczobut and Georgian journalist Mzia Amaglobeli, who were sentenced to imprisonment in their respective countries; journalists and humanitarian workers working in conflict zones, represented by the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, the Palestinian Red Crescent and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA); and Serbian students.
The winner of the prize will be announced in Strasbourg on October 22. The award ceremony will take place there on December 16, and the winner will also receive 50 thousand euros.
The 2025 nominees are known for
Andrzej Poczobut is a journalist, oppositionist, and activist of the Union of Poles of Belarus. In his articles, he has repeatedly criticized the policies of President Alexander Lukashenko. Poczobut also dealt with issues related to the history of the USSR secret services and anti-Soviet armed resistance in Western Belarus, the territory of modern Belarus, which was part of Poland from 1921 until it was incorporated into the USSR in 1939.
For his activities, Pochobut was repeatedly detained, and in 2023, he was sentenced to eight years in prison under articles on “inciting hostility and enmity” and “calls for actions aimed at harming” the country.
Mzia Amaglobeli is a co-founder and director of the major Georgian publications Batumelebi and Netgazeti. She was detained on January 11 during a protest in Batumi. The journalist was accused of assaulting a police officer after she allegedly hit the cheek of the city police chief, Irakli Dgebuadze, on the cheek. In August, Amaglobeli was sentenced to two years in prison under the article on “resistance, threat or violence against a person protecting public order or another representative of the authorities.”
Journalists and humanitarian aid workers working in various conflict zones were nominated for the award against the backdrop of the fact that the Gaza Strip, which since October 2023 has been at the center of the war between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group, has actually become considered “the most dangerous region for journalism in the world.” Many Palestinian journalists and humanitarian workers have been killed there.
Serbian students received the nomination because they initiated protests across the country after the collapse of the canopy over the entrance to the railway station in Novi Sad on November 1, 2024. The protesters blamed the tragedy, which claimed the lives of 16 people, on systemic corruption and poor infrastructure.
As a result, the student movement initially managed to unite teachers, farmers, artists, journalists, taxi drivers, and people of other professions. And on March 15, 2025, more than 350,000 people, according to some reports, came to a rally in Belgrade, the largest demonstration in the history of modern sovereign Serbia.
