Members of the European Parliament have officially nominated Edward Snowden for the Freedom of Thought Prize, a parliamentary spokesman said on Wednesday.
Snowden will be nominated for the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. Named after Andrei Sakharov , a dissident scientist from the Soviet Union, the prize honors people or organizations for their work in defending human rights and freedom of thought.
Christian Engström, a member of the Swedish Pirate Party who was one of those who nominated Snowden for the award, wrote that Snowden is “paying a heavy personal price” for his “heroic” decision.
“The U.S. government is hunting him down like an outlaw… Governments that dare to offer him asylum are threatened with dire consequences by the U.S. government,” Engstrom on his personal blog. “In a painful irony, his only refuge was Russia, a country with democratic problems and authoritarian tendencies.”
There have been several previous winners of the Sakharov Prize, including anti-apartheid revolutionary and former South African president Nelson Mandela, Chinese dissident Hu Jia, Reporters Without Borders and the French NGO that supports press freedom. All have received 50,000 euros.
An official presentation of all Sakharov Prize nominees will take place on 16 September. The winner will be announced in October, and the award ceremony will take place in December in Strasbourg.
