The winner of the Prize for Freedom of Thought will be announced in October

Sep 17, 2013 11:51 GMT  ·  By

The Foreign Affairs and Development committees and the Human Rights Subcommittee of the EU Parliament have officially nominated Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower, to the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

As I reported earlier this month, the decision came a while back, but the official list has only now been released.

Edward Snowden was nominated by the Green/EFA group and GUE/NGL group.

“A computer expert who worked as a contractor for the US National Security Agency and leaked details of its mass surveillance programmes to the press, Mr Snowden has been charged with espionage in the USA and is now living in temporary asylum in Russia,” reads his description in the official announcement.

Edward Snowden’s leaked documents have sparked an international debate on the subject of human rights and the right for privacy after revealing that the NSA is constantly spying on people all over the world, including from the United States.

Over the past three months there have been countless reports indicating the NSA spied on US and foreign citizens, companies, heads of states, as well as targets of economic importance, to name just a few of the revelations stemming from the leaked documents.

Other nominees are Malala Yousafzai (Pakistan), a symbol of the fight for women’s rights and access to education, Reeyot Alemu and Eskinder Nega (Ethiopia), two journalists who are serving prison terms on terrorism charges. Ales Bialatski, Eduard Lobau and Mykola Statkevich are also on the list, representing all Belarusian political prisoners.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky is another name that could win the Sakharov Prize. He’s a Russian businessman that got arrested after advocating an independent judicial system and calling on President Putin to account for corruption. “Standing Man” protesters in Turkey and the CNN Freedom Project complete the list.

The winner will be chosen on October 10 in Strasbourg while the ceremony will be held on November 20.