Farinas wins Sakharov rights prize
The European parliament awarded yesterday its prestigious Sakharov human rights prize to Cuban dissident Guillermo Farinas, parliamentary sources told AFP.
"The Sakharov winner is Guillermo Farinas," a source said on condition of anonymity.
The 48-year-old journalist and psychologist has often used hunger strikes, putting his own health at risk, as a means of protest to achieve greater freedoms in the Communist island of Cuba.
Farinas is the third Cuban to receive the prize, after Oswaldo Paya in 2002 and the "Ladies in White" group of women whose husbands are jailed in Cuba, which received the award in 2005.
European parliament president Jerzy Buzek will officially announce Farinas as the winner of the Sakharov Prize later yesterday. The award will be presented to the winner on December 15.
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