http://rt.com/news/snowden-sakharov-prize-freedom-eu-737/
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Members of the European Parliament


NSA leaks


have officially nominated whistleblower
and former CIA employee Edward



Tags


Snowden for the prestigious prize, which


EU, Hacking,Human rights,


celebrates freedom of thought.


Information Technology,
Intelligence,Politics,
Snowden,WikiLeaks



Edward Snowden "deserves to be honored
for shedding light on the systematic infringements of civil liberties
by US and European secret services," leaders of the parliament's
Greens group Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Rebecca Harms said in a
statement. "Snowden has risked his freedom to help us protect
ours."

Snowden, a computer specialist and former contractor for the US
National Security Agency (NSA), was the focus of an international
manhunt during the summer after he leaked classified files of US
government and UK surveillance programs, including spying on theirtheir
closest allies, to the media.

He was granted temporary asylum in Russia in late July despite
repeated requests for him to be extradited by Washington.

AFP Photo / Dominique Faget



Snowden was put forward as a candidate by the European United
Left/Nordic Green Left faction.

Christian Engstrom from the Swedish Pirate Party, who co-nominated Snowden for the award, said that the whistleblower has
paid “a heavy personal price” for his “heroic” actions.

The prize is named after the Soviet dissident scientist Andrey
Sakharov and honors people and organizations for their work in
defending human rights and freedom of thought.

The official presentation of all the candidates for the Sakharov Prize
will take place on 16 September, next Monday, the winner will be
announced in October and the awards ceremony will take place in
Strasbourg in December.

Previous laureates of the Sakharov Prize include Nelson Mandela,
Chinese dissident Hu Jia and Reporters without Borders, a French
based NGO that fights for freedom of the press. The winner receives
a prize of 50,000 euros.

Andrey Sakharov was a physicist who designed the Soviet Hydrogen
Bomb but soon after began to regret what he had done and became
a campaigner for the destruction of all nuclear weapons. He
became an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the Soviet
Union. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975.