"Novaya Gazeta" and CPT awarded Andrei Sakharov Prize

The 2017 Andrei Sakharov Prize is awarded for the efforts of journalists and rights defenders to combat torture and other human rights violations in Russia. This has been reported today by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee.

On November 23, the award ceremony will be held in Oslo as part of the celebration of the 40^th anniversary of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee. According to the release, the ceremony will be attended by Elena Milashina, a journalist from the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta", and Olga Sadovskaya, the deputy director of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT).

"Elena Milashina and Olga Sadovskaya are actively involved in the protection of human rights in Russia. In 2017, Elena Milashina reported about the systematic torture of homosexuals in Chechnya, and that caused an international response. Olga Sadovskaya won numerous suits of torture against the Russian Federation at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)," the release quoted Bjørn Engesland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, as reporting.

The release also emphasizes that the CPT lawyers "are successfully fighting against violators of human rights, thereby contributing to strengthening the conviction that justice can triumph." In turn, journalists of the "Novaya Gazeta" report "outrageous cases of cruel treatment of people and publish independent news in a country where state propaganda is widespread," the release notes.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.