EU's Ashton laments absence of Syrian Sakharov prize-winners
(STRASBOURG) - EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said Tuesday that two Syrian rights defenders awarded a European Parliament campaigning award would not attend a prize ceremony.
"Tomorrow the Sakharov prize for freedom of thought will be awarded to five representatives of the Arab Spring, from Tunisia to Egypt, from Libya to Syria," Ashton told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.
"Unfortunately not all of them will be here with us tomorrow.
"Our two Syrian friends are still fighting for their rights, and for obvious reasons they could not come to Strasbourg," she said, referring to Syrian lawyer Razan Zeitouneh and Syrian cartoonist Ali Farzat.
The pair were named alongside posthumous Tunisian winner Mohamed Bouazizi, a fruitseller who set fire to himself at the start of the uprising, as well as Egypt's Asmaa Mahfouz and Libyan dissident Ahmed al-Zubair Ahmed al-Sanusi, for the 50,000 euro ($70,000) prize.
More than 5,000 people have died in the crackdown in Syria, according to the latest United Nations estimates.
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