EU shortlists Turkish journalist for rights prize

An exiled Turkish journalist, a Crimean Tartar activist and two Yazidi victims of the Islamic state group were shortlisted on Tuesday for the European Parliament's prestigious Sakharov human rights prize.

The prize is awarded annually to honour individuals who combat intolerance, fanaticism and oppression, often falling foul of their governments as a result.

Can Dundar, the former editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet, Turkey's top opposition daily, was sentenced by a Turkish court in May to five years and 10 months in prison for allegedly revealing state secrets in a story that angered Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government.

Cumhuriyet's report on a shipment of arms intercepted at the Syrian border sparked a furore, with Erdogan warning Dundar he would "pay a heavy price".

Dundar is believed to be in Germany after he was freed earlier this year pending an appeal following his trial.

Speaking to Middle East Eye in April, Dundar warned of the decline in press freedom in his native country.

“We, as critical journalists, have a higher duty as we become fewer in numbers… as we defend our rights and the last hope of democracy in Turkey,” Dundar said.

“It is as if we are some kind of freedom fighters, and our fight has only just begun.”

Also nominated was human rights activist Mustafa Dzhemilev, a former Soviet dissident and Ukrainian MP.

Dzhemilev is a leader of the long-oppressed Tartar community in Crimea, the strategic peninsula annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014.

After already living in exile from Crimea for 45 years, Dzhemilev is again barred from entering the peninsula by Russian authorities.

Among the other nominees was Iraqi activist Nadia Murad, who was an Islamic State (IS) sex slave before becoming the face of a campaign to protect her Yazidi people.

The young woman was taken by IS from her home village of Kocho near Iraq's northern town of Sinjar in August 2014.

Among the first things IS compelled her to do was to disavow her Yazidi faith, an ancient religion with more than half a million adherents concentrated in northern Iraq.

The Strasbourg-based Council of Europe on Monday awarded its Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize to Murad, who shares her Sakharov nomination with Yazidi advocate Lamiya Aji Bashar, also from Kocho and enslaved by IS.

Last year, the parliament awarded the prize to Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi, jailed in his country for "insulting" Islam.

The winner will be chosen by MEPs on 27 October during a plenary session of the European Parliament.

Past winners include Pakistani education campaigner Malala Yousafzai, late South African rights icon Nelson Mandela, and Myanmar political leader and former activist Aung San Suu Kyi. The prize carries an award of 50,000 Euros ($56,000).