Belarusian journalists Andrzej Poczobut and Georgian Mzia Amaglobeli are the winners of the 2025 Sakharov Prize, the President of the European Parliament (EP), Roberta Metsola, announced today.
In a plenary session held this week in Strasbourg, France, Roberta Metsola announced that the Conference of EP Presidents chose the two journalists, who today are “in prison simply for doing their job, for denouncing injustice and fighting for freedom and democracy”.
“This house is with them and with all those who continue to demand freedom”, commented the president of the EP before MEPs.
The award will be presented on December 16, during the Strasbourg plenary session, the last in 2025.
Andrzej Poczobut is a Belarusian journalist belonging to the segment of the Belarusian population of Polish origin and an avid critic of the regime of the President of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko.
The journalist has been detained since 2021 and is serving an eight-year sentence in solitary confinement.
According to the family, Belarusian authorities have repeatedly denied Andrzej Poczobut medical treatment and rejected requests for visits.
Mzia Amaglobeli is a Georgian journalist who was detained this year for participating in anti-government demonstrations. Georgian authorities sentenced the journalist to a two-year prison term, but the opposition says the arrest and trial are politically motivated.
“Georgia’s first political prisoner since independence [1991] and a fighter for freedom of expression, Mzia Amaglobeli is a symbol of the movement in favor of democracy that has been opposing the regime since the October 2024 elections”, which culminated in the setback of the accession process to the European Union and the limitation of citizens’ rights, according to the European Parliament.