The European Parliament has awarded five "Arab Spring" activists the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.<br /><br />Among the winners, which include both men and women, is Mohamed Bouazizi - a Tunisian fruit seller who set himself on fire in a sign of protest that set the region ablaze with historic revolutionary movements.<br /><br />Other winners included Egypt's Asmaa Mahfouz and Libyan dissident Ahmed al-Zubair Ahmed al-Sanusi. Syrian winners, lawyer Razan Zeitouneh and cartoonist Ali Farzat, were unable to attend the award ceremony due to ongoing strife in their homeland.<br /><br />In addition to the honour of being named, the winners will share a prize of $65,000. <br /><br />Past winners of the Sakharov Prize include anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela and former UN chief Kofi Annan.<br /><br />Al Jazeera's Nadim Baba reports.<br /><br />Read Al Jazeera's article: http://aje.me/uaZ4md
