Oleg Sentsov - 2018, Ukraine
Born in Simferopol in 1976, Sentsov studied economics in Kyiv, followed by scriptwriting and directing in Moscow. He made his feature film debut in 2012 with the prize-winning film Gamer. In 2013 he became an active member of the AutoMaidan movement, which called for freedom and human rights and helped fuel the EuroMaidan Revolution.
In 2014, during the illegal annexation of Crimea, Sentsov organised humanitarian assistance for the stranded Ukrainian soldiers, providing them with food, medication and assistance to evacuate their families. On 10 May 2014, he was arrested in Simferopol on charges of plotting acts of terrorism against the Russian 'de facto' rule in Crimea. The Russian security service transported him to Russia. He spent a year in detention before appearing at a military tribunal, which proceeded to sentence him to 20 years in prison in what Amnesty International described as 'an extremely cynical show trial'. Russian authorities treated him as a Russian citizen even though he never had a Russian passport and declared he only had Ukrainian citizenship.
Sentsov was accused of leading a terrorist organisation with plans to blow up monuments in Crimea. He fervently maintained his innocence and no conclusive evidence of his involvement in criminal activities was presented. The key witness for the prosecution retracted his initial confession and revealed he made it under torture. In his speech in court, Sentsov ridiculed the trumped-up process and expressed the hope that people in Russia would cease to live in fear.
After he was sentenced, Sentsov was sent to a high-security penal colony north of the Arctic Circle in Siberia, thousands of miles from his home. He continued to fight for his convictions in prison. In May 2018 he embarked on a 145-day hunger strike, demanding the release of all Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia. He was forced to end it under the threat of force-feeding and due to the critical state of his health.
On 14 June 2018, the European Parliament adopted a resolution insisting on the immediate and unconditional release of Oleg Sentsov and all other illegally detained Ukrainian citizens in Russia. The international community, human rights groups, Russian filmmakers, renowned film directors and celebrity actors supported Sentsov and called for his release. The Russian human rights centre Memorial recognised him as a political prisoner.
In September 2019, Sentsov was released from jail and returned to Ukraine. His release was part of an agreement between Russia and Ukraine on the exchange of groups of prisoners from each side. In a statement, European Parliament President David Sassoli expressed his relief and joy at the news of Sentsov's release. He hailed him as a courageous man who had resisted injustice with dignity.
In November 2019, two months after his release, Sentsov accepted his Sakharov award at a ceremony in the European Parliament in Strasbourg. He received the prize 'not as a personal honour, but as a prize to all Ukrainian political prisoners that have ever been in Russian prisons'.