Watchdog

BRUSSELS -- Russia’s slain opposition politician Boris Nemtsov and imprisoned Ukrainian military pilot and parliament member Nadiya Savchenko are among the nominees for the 2015 Sakharov Prize.

The 50,000-euro prize, established by the European Parliament in 1988, is awarded every year to individuals or groups of people who have dedicated their lives to the defense of human rights and freedom of thought.

Nemtsov, a former Russian deputy prime minister of Russia, was murdered in February 2015. He was a vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin.

Savchenko was captured in 2014 by Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine and handed over to Russia, where she is being tried on charges of participating in the murder of Russian journalists.

The nominees also include three whistleblowers -- Edward Snowden, Antoine Deltour, and Stephanie Gibaud -- Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, Somalian activist Edna Adan Ismail, and Mesa da la Unidad Democracia, which provides legal services for political prisoners and opposition groups in Venezuela.

The winner will be decided in October.

STRASBOURG, France -- The European Parliament has called on Belarus to rehabilitate released political prisoners and to fully restore their civil and political rights.

In a resolution overwhelmingly passed on September 10, EU lawmakers welcomed the release in August of major political prisoners, including former presidential candidate Mikalay Statkevich, but stressed that they remain "deeply concerned by the human rights and fundamental freedoms situation in Belarus."

The resolution says that similar steps in the past "were rather token gestures and neither contributed to improving the situation of Belarusian society nor improved relations with the EU."

It also calls on Minsk to allow the opposition to compete in the October presidential elections on an equal footing.

There is no mention in the text of the EU's restrictive measures such as asset freezes and visa bans which were imposed on President Alyaksandr Lukashenka and up to 200 others after the 2010 presidential elections.