26/10/2012 18:01
Pussy Riot not to receive Sakharov Prize
The EP announced Friday that the 2012 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought would go to two jailed Iranians: human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and filmmaker Jafar Panahi.
Among the nominees for the award, named after Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, was also the band Pussy Riot and members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich.
They were nominated for their unsanctioned protest in a Moscow cathedral in which they denounced President Vladimir Putin, a performance for which they were jailed and convicted of hooliganism inspired by religious hatred. In August, a Moscow court sentenced them to two years in prison each. Samutsevich was later released on appeal.
Their losing out to the Iranian campaigner and director would not put them out, lawyer Nikolai Polozov said.
"They won't be upset. What's more important here is the attention of society, of the international community, to the Pussy Riot case," Polozov told Interfax on Friday.