The Rafto Foundation, a Norwegian human rights foundation, has awarded its annual prize to a Russian lawyer and the legal aid group he heads for their work defending the right to fair trials.
Pavel Chikov, 36, and the Agora group were selected for helping activists, bloggers, journalists, and NGOs against the unlawful actions of Russian government agencies.
The Rafto Prize, amounting to $20,000, awarded every year since 1987, is presented in November in the western Norwegian city of Bergen.
However, Agora will not accept the prize so as not to endanger its legal status in Russia, where NGOs receiving financial support from abroad are officially registered as “foreign agents” and might face closure.
