THE YOUNG Tunisian credited with sparking the Arab Spring by setting himself on fire in protest was posthumously awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought yesterday at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
In addition to Mohamed Bouazizi, four other Arab Spring activists were honoured with the award for the decisive roles they played in the various movements that swept through North Africa earlier this year.
They are lawyer Razan Zaitouneh and cartoonist Ali Farzat, both from Syria, Egyptian blogger Asmaa Mahfouz and Libyan dissident Ahmed al-Zubair Ahmed al-Sanusi.
The prize, named after the Soviet physicist, political dissident and Nobel Peace Prize winner Andrei Sakharov, has been awarded annually by the parliament since 1988.
“By awarding the Sakharov Prize to the five Arab Spring activists, the European Parliament recognises the efforts of all those who struggle for dignity, basic freedoms and political change in the Arab world,” the president of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, said.
Only two of the laureates – Ms Mahfouz and Mr Sanusi – could attend.
Mr Farzat, who is exiled in Kuwait, sent a video message in which he voiced his grief at the number of victims in his home country of Syria, while his countrywoman, Ms Zaitouneh, was forced to send only a letter of thanks as she is in hiding after Syrian police arrested her husband and brother.