Three champions of democracy and free speech, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine and Azerbaijan, emerge as frontrunners for Parliament's 2014 prize for freedom of thought.

Sakharov Prize finalists named

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Now the three remaining candidates  for the prize are

So those three names will now go  to the Conference of Presidents of the EP

that will make a decision on 16 October.

which burst on the main square of  the Ukrainian capital Kiev last November,

against the corrupt rule  of Viktor Yanukovych

It is led by charismatic journalists  and musicians.

Images from Independence Square,  the Russian seizure of Crimea

and the Russian-backed  rebel uprising in eastern Ukraine

People are prepared to die  under the European flags.

They achieved something  which was unthinkable a year ago.

They pushed the politicians  to stop the bloodshed.

They pushed the politicians  to take the path of reforms.

Not too far from Ukraine, in Azerbaijan,

the leading human rights campaigner  Leyla Yunus languishes in prison,

facing what rights activists say are  trumped up charges of fraud and treason.

Her husband too, along with  up to 50 other human rights defenders,

She was subject to harassment,  to persecution, for a number of years.

She has been actually  incarcerated since July.

That clearly is in keeping  with the spirit of the Sakharov Prize itself,

and give an example to the wider  domestic discussion in Azerbaijan.

Last, but by no means least,  Dr Denis Mukwege,

a gynaecologist  from the Democratic Republic of Congo

who have benefited from his surgery  after being gang-raped.

The campaigner against sexual violence  as a weapon of war

set up a hospital for violated women  in Bukavu

but fled the DRC  after a failed assassination attempt.

Dr Mukwege came up as someone  who really was fighting that

helping the community  to live with these terrible wounds.

He really has been a hero  for the world, for humanity.

Rape as a weapon of war  is simply intolerable.