Venezuelan opposition figures win EU's top rights Sakharov prize

Venezuelan opposition figures win EU's top rights Sakharov prize

For Machado, it is the second prize in as many months

The EU parliament awarded the bloc's top rights Sakharov prize on Thursday to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado and her ally, former presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.

They won the prestigious award for their fight for democracy under President Nicolas Maduro's iron-fisted rule.

Machado, 57, played a key role in Venezuela's presidential election in July. Although the authorities proclaimed Maduro the winner, the opposition believes its candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia won.

Gonzalez Urrutia, 75, went into exile in Spain in September.

European Parliament chief Roberta Metsola said the two figures represented "all Venezuelans inside and outside the country fighting to restore freedom and democracy", as she announced the award in the parliament in Strasbourg, France.

"Edmundo and Maria have continued to fight for the fair, free and peaceful transition of power and have fearlessly upheld those values that millions of Venezuelans and this parliament hold so dear: justice, democracy and the rule of law," Metsola added.

"This parliament stands with the people of Venezuela and with Maria and Edmundo in their struggle for the democratic future of their country," Metsola said.

"We are confident that Venezuela, and democracy, will ultimately prevail," she added.

Machado said she was honoured to share the prize. "This recognition is for every political prisoner, people who sought asylum or are exiled, and every citizen of our country who defends what they believe," she said in a statement on social media.

Gonzalez Urrutia hailed the prize as embodying "the deep solidarity of the peoples of Europe with the Venezuelan people and their struggle to recover democracy".

Machado and Gonzalez Urrutia were nominated for the award by the centre-right European People's Party, the largest political grouping in the EU parliament. 

The hard-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group also supported them.

ECR co-chair Nicola Procaccini said their win was "a sign of support for all the people who have been living under oppressive conditions for many years".

There will be an award ceremony in Strasbourg in December. The winner receives a 50,000-euro ($54,000) prize.

- 'Bravely standing up' -

The two other finalists were jailed Azerbaijani activist Gubad Ibadoghlu -- backed by the Greens -- and Israeli and Palestinian organisations working together for peace, proposed by the Socialists and Democrats group.

French Socialist MEPs complained that by ignoring their pick the parliament had "missed a chance to promote peace and reconciliation in the Middle East".

Metsola paid tribute to the finalists, saying they "all are bravely standing up for human rights and for freedom of thought in the face of unimaginable challenges".

She said that the health of Ibadoghlu -- under house arrest -- was "currently deteriorating significantly" and called on "Azerbaijani authorities to drop all charges against Doctor Ibadoghlu and lift his travel ban".

Far-right lawmakers had nominated US tech billionaire Elon Musk as a champion of "free speech", but their eyebrow-raising choice was not accepted.

Named after Soviet physicist and political dissident Andrei Sakharov, previous recipients of the award include South Africa's Nelson Mandela and late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

For Machado, it is her second prize after she won the top European rights prize in September awarded by the Council of Europe, which is not an EU institution.

bur-raz/gv

Originally published as Venezuelan opposition figures win EU's top rights Sakharov prize