Andrzej Poczobut, an activist of the Union of Poles in Belarus, has been behind bars for more than four and a half years. He was detained in March 2021 and subsequently sentenced to eight years for "threatening the national security of the Republic of Belarus" and "inciting hatred." The charges were based on his statements in defense of the Polish community in Belarus and his public assessment of the USSR's attack on Poland in 1939 as aggression. In response to his sentence, Poland closed one of its border crossings with Belarus. Poczobut himself refuses to sign a petition for clemency and leave the country. His nomination for the award was submitted by a group of Members of the European Parliament from the "European Conservatives and Reformists" group.
Mzia Amaglobeli, who is under arrest in Georgia, has become the first female political prisoner in the country since its independence and a symbol of protests against the ruling party "Georgian Dream."
The "Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought," established by the European Parliament, was first awarded in 1988 and named in honor of Andrei Sakharov, the Soviet physicist and dissident, Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
