Today the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought has been awarded to Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov at the European Parliament in Strasburg. His cousin, Ms Nataliya Kaplan, who represented Oleg Sentsov, has been handed the prize.
Rebecca Harms, Green Member of the European Parliament and Co-President to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly, congratulates Oleg Sentsov:
"All my thoughts go out to our 2018 Sakharov laureate Oleg Sentsov. The filmmaker has been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in the Russian Arctic, because of his peaceful protest for freedom, for the sovereignty of Ukraine and against the military occupation of Crimea by Russian President Putin's troops. With his hunger strike, Oleg Sentsov has risked his own life for the freedom of over 60 Ukrainian political prisoners held by the Kremlin. He has become the symbol of the struggle of all Ukrainian prisoners who have been illegally imprisoned in Russia and on the Crimean peninsula. The European Parliament shows with this prize that we stand with Oleg Sentsov and we promise to continue to fight for his and all Ukrainian political prisoners' release."
The video in which MEPs from different political groups read out the names of all other Ukrainian prisoners, for whom Oleg Sentsov went on hunger strike, can be found here.
