(BRUSSELS) - Chinese dissident Hu Jia, Belarus opposition leader Alexandr Kozulin and Congolese Abbot Apollinaire Malu Malu were shortlisted Tuesday for the EU parliament's prestigious Sakharov Prize.

Hu is a campaigner for civil rights, environmental protection and AIDS advocacy in China.

He was arrested last year after giving testimony on human rights in China to the European Parliaments's human rights subcommittee by phone, and sentenced to three-and-a-half years' in jail for subversion.

Kozulin is a former presidential candidate in Belarus chosen for his "great courage" in standing up to the regime there and fighting for the "freedom of thought and expression and basic civil rights."

In 2006, during the presidential campaign, he was beaten, detained and finally sentenced to five and a half years of imprisonment.

Malu Malu, chair of the Democratic Republic of Congo's Independent Electoral Commission, won praise for his efforts "in making dialogue prevail over violence" during the Goma conference aimed at bringing peace to the provinces of North and South Kivu.

The 2008 Sakharov Prize, named after Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, is in its 20th year and previous winners, chosen for the their human rights activities, will be invited to attend the presentation in December.

These include former South African leader Nelson Mandela, Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi -- who has long been under house arrest -- and former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.

This year's laureate will be chosen in mid-October by EU parliamentary group leaders and the prize presented in the assembly's Strasbourg chamber on December 17.

The three names on the shortlist were chosen late Monday by parliamentary committees from an original list of seven, which included the Dalai Lama, Zimbabwean prime minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai and Franco-Colombian ex-hostage Ingrid Betancourt.

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