Candidates for the 2018 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought are presented at a joint meeting with the Foreign Affairs (AFET) and Development (DEVE) committees and the Human Rights Subcommittee (DROIT) in the European parliament in Brussels. This year there are eight candidates. The Foreign Affairs and Development committees will vote on 9 October to shortlist the three finalists. Parliament's Conference of Presidents will select the final winner on 25 October. The candidates are AfriForum, Seyran Ateş, Caesar, Dewayne Johnson, NGOs protecting human rights and saving lives of migrants across the Mediterranean Sea, Oleg Sentsov, Mary Wagner and Nasser Zefzafi.

Committee on Foreign Affairs

Brussels

meeting

Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI)

CORRAO, Ignazio (Greens/EFA, IT)

McALLISTER, David (EPP, DE)

Committee on Development

VERGIAT, Marie-Christine (GUE/NGL, FR)

VALENCIANO, Elena (S&D, ES)

JUREK, Marek (ECR, PL)

VAN ORDEN, Geoffrey (ECR, UK)

SCHAAKE, Marietje (ALDE, NL)

KUKAN, Eduard (EPP, SK)

MIRANDA, Ana (Greens/EFA, ES)

Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought 2018 (T)

Sakharov Prize 2018: presentation of the candidates

SOUNDBITE (English), David McALLISTER (EPP, DE), By awarding this prize, we are honouring individuals who, through their work and often at great danger to their life and freedom, fight for human rights across the globe.

Candidates presented by alphabetical order:

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Mario BORGHEZIO (ENF, IT), The first candidate is AfriForum: AfriForum tries to raise awareness on the problem of farmer attacks and farm murders and on the expropriation of farmland without compensation (EWC)

SOUNDBITE (English), Geoffrey VAN ORDEN (ECR, UK), The second candidate is Seyran Ateş: This is Seyran Ateş, she is a lawyer and civil rights/human rights activist born in Turkey, but she moved to Germany when she was a child. She's been fighting against the oppression of women which is symbolised in forced or child marriages and honour killings, legitimised by a false understanding of Islam.

SOUNDBITE (English), Marietje SCHAAKE (ALDE, NL), The third candidate is Caesar: I believe Caesar is a true hero, an ordinary Syrian who took and extraordinarily courageous decision in the face of the most intense violence committed by the military security and thereby the state. And I think that he is very well respected by Syrians of all sides of the ongoing conflict or ethnicities for what he has done.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Ignazio CORRAO (EFDD, IT), The fourth candidate is Dewayne Johnson: Now, with lymphoma and on the doorstep of death, Dewayne Johnson has continued to struggle against Monsanto and the particular products which it releases onto the market with cancerogenic elements. So we are speaking about a case of millions of dollars, but a case which affects millions of people throughout the world.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Elena VALENCIANO (S&amp;D, ES), The fifth candidate is NGOs protecting human rights and saving lives of migrants across the Mediterranean Sea: Giving the prize to these NGOs would be a question of putting ourselves in the sights, that we have made mistakes and we do believe in a Europe of solidarity. These people defend human dignity and they should be prized for doing so, not attacked.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Ana MIRANDA (Greens/EFA, ES), The fifth candidate is NGOs protecting human rights and saving lives of migrants across the Mediterranean Sea: It says, this is not a life jacket, do not leave children without supervision. When you see this on the sea, it means that there is a child which died in underwater. And we see Europe increasing xenophobia and racism against migrants, and this crew on this boat defending certain values such as the respect to life and solidarity.

SOUNDBITE (English), Eduard KUKAN (EPP, SK), The sixth candidate is Oleg Sentsov: Our candidate for the European Sakharov Prize, Mr. Oleg Sentsov. We have decided to support Mr. Sentsov because we believe that his peaceful protest against the Russian occupation of Crimea and his struggle for releasing Ukrainian political prisoners represent the principal fight for freedom of thought.

SOUNDBITE (English), Eduard KUKAN (EPP, SK), Oleg Sentsov is an innocent man, who has been in custody for more than four years. As of May 14 this year, he is on hunger strike. He is calling on the Russian authorities to release around 70 Ukrainian prisoners held in Russia and Crimea on politically motivated charges after the Russian occupation of Crimea.

SOUNDBITE (French), Marek JUREK (ECR, PL), The seventh candidate is Mary Wagner: We have the honour of presenting the candidacy of Mary Wagner, who is a Canadian activist for the right to life of unborn children and as a defender of their rights she has our solidarity.

SOUNDBITE (French), Marie-Christine VERGIAT (GUE/NGL, FR), The eighth candidate is Nasser Zefzafi: Nasser Zefzafi is a 39 years old man from Al Hoceima, since he left school he had a number of jobs, but also spent time unemployed. Like many people, especially after the death of Mohsin Fikri, he felt the nend to give voice to the people of the Rif and became the leader of Hirak Rif, even though he's been a victim of many threats. In 29 May 2017, he was arrested, tortured and placed in isolation and his closer relatives are worried about his state of health.