The winners of this year’s EU Sakharov prize for free speech have risked their safety by speaking out to MEPs on Wednesday (12 December).
The statements – by imprisoned Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, and by Iranian film maker Jafar Panahi, who is under a six-year suspended sentence – were read out on their behalf in Strasbourg because Iran declined to let them collect the award in person.
Sotoudeh’s letter, read by exiled Iranian lawyer and Nobel laureate, Shirin Ebadi, said that human rights are the reason behind all the Arab Spring revolutions, which began with a failed uprising in Iran in 2009.
She noted: “I’d like to send my warmest and sincerest greetings from Evin prison [in Tehran] … This [Sakharov] decision is a great source of pride for me and encourages me to keep up my struggle with patience and calm.”
She added: “The fight to protect human rights as a lawyer is a compelling one even if it leads to imprisonment.”
Panahi’s letter, read out by Greek film director Costa-Gavras, said: “The authorities of my country are becoming so intolerant that they cannot even stand independent journalists or film makers.”
