Irish activist and 1976 Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Corrigan Maguire has nominated WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, as well as whistleblowers Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, according to The Irish Times.
"Individually, each has given countless examples of courage exposing governments' illegal actions that caused millions of deaths - putting their own freedoms and lives on the line. Collectively, their lives of self-sacrifice and selflessness constitute remarkable demonstrations of the magnificence of the human spirit", the co-founder of the Peace People organisation stated in her letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
Julian Assange currently faces up to 175 years in prison in the United States, should he be convicted of all of the 18 charges against him, while Snowden faces up to ten years in prison for disclosing details about American mass surveillance.
Manning, who revealed US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, was tried and sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2013 but was released in 2017 when outgoing US President Barack Obama commuted her sentence. The former US Army intelligence analyst was imprisoned again in March 2019 after refusing to testify before a Grand Jury about links to Assange but was once again released last March, getting off with a $256,000 fine.
