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29th Mar 2024

Darfur lawyer wins Sakharov Prize

Sudanese human rights lawyer Salih Mahmoud Osman has been awarded this year's Sakharov Prize - the European Parliament's Freedom of Thought award - for his work to combat the rights abuses in his country.

Mr Osman was the unanimous choice of the leaders of parliament's seven political groups who chose the winner among the three finalists. The two other runners-up where Chinese bloggers and dissidents Zeng Jinyan and Hu Jia, and the late Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

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  • Human rights lawyer Salih Mahmoud Osman (Photo: European Parliament)

The new Sakharov laureate is an opposition member of the Sudanese parliament and also works with the Sudan Organisation Against Torture (SOAT), where he has provided free legal and medical aid to victims of human rights abuses in Sudan for over two decades.

As well as dealing with the victims of abuses - such as overturning judgements of death or amputation and campaigning to have rape established as a war crime - Mr Osman and SOAT have also been active in cataloguing crimes that have taken place - particularly in the troubled Darfur region.

"By awarding the Sakharov Prize to Salih Mahmoud Osman, the European Parliament wants to recognise the very important work of this very courageous man who has made his voice heard to make sure that the rule of law is being supported in Sudan," said the parliament president Hans Gert Poettering when announcing the prize winner on Thursday (25 October).

"Despite the high personal risks, he still manages to push the issues at international level," he added.

Mr Osman was himself imprisoned by the Sudanese government for over seven months in 2004 without charge or a trial.

The parliament has since 1988 awarded the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought to persons or organisations, that fight suppression, intolerance and injustice.

The award is named after Soviet rights activist Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989) and was last year awarded to Belarusian politician and opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich.

Other former laureates include anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela (1988), Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi (1990) and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and all the UN staff (2003).

The prize and a cheque for €50 000 will be formally awarded to Mr Osman in Strasbourg on 11 December.

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