EP SAKHAROV PRIZE: KOSOVAR UKSHIN HOTI IS ONE OF THE THREE NOMINATED BY THE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

Brussels, 13 October 1998. This morning, University Professor Ukshin HOTI of Kosova, detained since 1994 in the National-Communist prisons of the Milosevic regime, has been selected together with Akin BIRDAL and Ibrahim RUGOVA by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament as a candidate for the 1998 Sakharov Prize. The Sakharov Prize is awarded every year to a personality who has distinguished him or herself for his or her struggle in favor of freedom of speech and opinion.

Mr. Hoti nomination was presented by the entire European Radical Alliance Group and other MEPs.

Olivier Dupuis, MEP and Secretary of the Radical Party has delcared:

"It is particularly meaningful that in such a difficult moment for Kosova, the EP Foreign Affairs Committee have decided to nominate a kosovar like Ukshin Hoti. Mr. Hoti has always believed that the Kosova situation needed to be faced by a strong political confrontation - a choice paid with a very high personal price - and not with the hollow slogans or escapes from reality, a line unfortunately chosen by the kosovar leadership in the last decade".

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