European Parliament To Award Sakharov Prize To Ukrainian Director Sentsov
By RFE/RL
The European Parliament is scheduled to award imprisoned Ukrainian film director Oleh Sentsov with its 2018 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
The ceremony, set for December 12, aims to honor Sentsov, who has been imprisoned in Russia since opposing Moscow's takeover of his native Crimea in 2014.
European officials have called on Russian authorities to release Sentsov, saying the filmmaker continues to be in poor health as he recovers from 145-day hunger strike in prison.
A Crimean native who opposed Russia's 2014 takeover of the Ukrainian peninsula, Sentsov was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of terrorism.
He is currently imprisoned in a Far Northern Russian region.
Human rights groups and Western governments criticized the trial as politically motivated.
The prize, named in honor of the Soviet physicist and Nobel laureate Andrei Sakharov, was established by the European Parliament in 1988 to honor individuals and organizations who defend human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Sakharov was a founder of the Moscow Helsinki Group, a Soviet-era rights group, along with Lyudmila Alexeyeva, who died on December 8.
That concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for December 11, 2018. Check back here tomorrow for more of our continuing coverage. Thanks for reading and take care.