Ukraine nominates Sentsov for Nobel Peace Prize
The Verkhovna Rada has appealed to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, proposing the candidacy of Ukrainian filmmaker, political prisoner Oleh Sentsov to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
Some 245 MPs voted for relevant resolution No. 9040 at a meeting of the parliament on Tuesday.
According to the decree, the Verkhovna Rada instructed its chairman, Andriy Parubiy, to immediately forward the text of the parliamentary address to the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
"The Verkhovna Rada nominates Oleh Sentsov for awarding the Nobel Peace Prize proceeding from the fact that Oleh Sentsov during the entire period of illegal detention [four years], risking his own life, demonstrates the example of courageous, not violent resistance in the struggle for basic human rights and freedoms," the Verkhovna Rada said in a statement to the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
The statement also recalls that Sentsov was illegally arrested by the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation on May 10, 2014, and on August 25, 2015, the Russian court awarded him 20 years of imprisonment.
The Verkhovna Rada's statement also lists the names and surnames of more than 50 Ukrainian citizens illegally detained in the Russian Federation and the territories of Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions occupied by Russia, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported.