Today the Conference of Presidents in the European Parliament decided to award the Sakharov Prize (EU Human Rights Prize) to the Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov .
Rebecca Harms , Member of the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament, who has been engaged since long in the campaign for the freedom of Oleg Sentsov and all Ukrainian prisoners in Russia, comments:
"I welcome wholeheartedly the decision to award the Sakharov Prize to Oleg Sentsov. The filmmaker has been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in Siberia, because of his peaceful protest for freedom and against the military occupation of the Crimea by Putin's troops. Putin has made him and many other Ukrainians hostages. With his hunger strike, Oleg Sentsov has risked his own life for the freedom of over 60 Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia. The award also represents the promise to work for the release of Oleg Sentsov and all other Ukrainians who have been unjustly imprisoned in Russia."
