EP Nominates Scandalous 'Pussy Rioit' for Sakharov Award

The three jailed members of the scandalous Russian girls' punk group Pussy Riot have been nominated for EP's "Freedom of Thought" award by a German MEP. Photo by RIA Novosti

The three jailed members of the scandalous Russian girls' punk group Pussy Riot have been nominated by the European Parliament for a prestigious prize named after Soviet human rights activist Andrei Sakharov.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Ekaterina Samutsevich, who were sentenced last month to two years in prison for their anti-Putin "punk prayer" in Moscow's Christ the Savior cathedral in February, were Friday nominated by German parliament member Werner Schulz for the "For Freedom of Thought" award, otherwise known as the Sakharov Prize.

Other nominees include Belarusian human rights activist Ales Bialiatski, as well as members of the Rwandan and Iranian opposition.

The candidates will be officially presented on September 25 in Brussels. The winner will be chosen in December in Strasbourg.

The Sakharov Prize, which comes with EUR 50 000 award, is given to individuals and organizations who have made a special contribution to the protection of human rights.

Nelson Mandela and Soviet dissident Anatoly Marchenko, who died in prison in 1986, were the first to be awarded the prize in 1988.

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