German PEN Centre awards Iryna Khalip

Journalist Iryna Khalip received the Hermann Kesten Prize founded by the PEN Centre of Germany.

The award is given annually to writers for outstanding efforts in human rights activity or to writers suffering from politically motivated persecution.

As charter97.org reminds, other prize winners were Günter Grass in 1995, playwright Harold Pinter in 2001, Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2003.

Iryna Khalip is a prominent journalist and wife of presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov. She was arrested on December 19, 2010, on the day of the presidential election. She was given two-year suspended sentence for taking part in a protest rally against the rigged results of the presidential election.