This year Ales Bialiatski, Pussy Riot and Nasrin Sotoudeh and Jafar Panahi are the three finalists shortlisted for the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. The laureate will be announced on Friday, 26 October

Three finalists chosen for the 2012 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the Foreign affairs Committee and Development Committee are Ales Bialiatski, Pussy Riot and Nasrin Sotoudeh and Jafar Panahi. The Sakharov Prize 2011 is awarded to five representatives of the Arab people.

Ales Bialiatski is a freedom fighter and human rights defender currently imprisoned by the Belarusian regime. Mr Bialiatski has been lifelong civil society activist fighting for freedom of thought and expression in Belarus. The acts of protest and the arrest of three young women, Nadezhda Andreyevna Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alyokhina, Pussy Riot a punk music group, and their subsequent sentencing to two years in a labour camp, have done even more than murders of journalists and repressive new laws. That's why they have been chosen the second finalist. Finally, Nasrin Sotoudeh and Jafar Panahi are the three finalists in a joint candidature. Nasrin Sotoudeh is an imprisoned Iranian lawyer who has represented imprisoned Iranian opposition activists following the disputed June 2009 presidential elections. Jafar Panahi is an Iranian film director who is known for its humanist perspective on life in Iran, often focusing on the hardships of children, the impoverished and women.

The winner will receive €50,000 and be invited to attend the award ceremony on 12 December in the European Parliament in Strasbourg.