Sawt Falasteen - Jailed Belarus, Georgia journalists win EU's top rights prize

Amaghlobeli, 50, has emerged as a symbol of journalistic defiance to what critics see as a slide toward authoritarianism in her Black Sea nation -- once a top candidate for European Union membership.

Poczobut, 52, was jailed over his critical reporting, having refused to leave Belarus after its authoritarian government unleashed a crackdown on dissent, jailing hundreds and forcing most critics into exile.

"Both are journalists currently in prison on trumped-up charges simply for doing their work and for speaking out against injustice," European Parliament chief Roberta Metsola said in announcing the laureates in Strasbourg.

"Their courage has made them symbols of the struggle for freedom and democracy. This House stands with them and with all those who continue to demand freedom."

The Sakharov Prize, set up in 1988 and named after Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, is bestowed annually on individuals or organisations to recognise their fight for human rights or democracy.

Contenders are nominated by parliament's political groups as well as individual lawmakers.

The prize comes with a 50,000-euro ($58,000) endowment and will be handed out in a ceremony on December 16.

The candidacy of Poczobut and Amaghlobeli was backed by parliament's biggest group, the conservative EPP, and the hard-right ECR.

Amaghlobeli has championed investigations into public spending and abuse of office through her independent newsrooms Batumelebi and Netgazeti.

Despite appeals from Georgian and international rights groups to release her, a court in August sentenced her to two years in prison on charges of using "resistance, threat or violence" against an official.

Poczobut, a correspondent for Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, was sentenced to eight years in jail in February 2023, in a verdict Poland slammed as "unfair".

Poczobut had covered mass protests against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in 2020.

His jailing came at a time of heightened tensions with Poland that has become a hub for thousands of Belarusians fleeing their homeland, ruled by Lukashenko since 1994.

The two other award finalists were a student-led movement that has drawn hundreds of thousands to the streets in Serbia and aid workers and reporters in Gaza.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and her ally, former presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, were last year's winners. Machado went on to win this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

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C.Hamad--SF-PST