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STRASBOURG, Dec 17, 2008 (AFP) - The European Parliament officially awarded Wednesday its prestigious Sakharov rights prize in absentia to jailed Chinese dissident Hu Jia, whose nomination deeply angered Beijing.
In a video message broadcast in the chamber in Strasbourg, northern France, Hu's wife, Zeng Jinyan, thanked the EU assembly and said she wanted to use the prize money to help other activists in prison in China.
"At the beginning of November, police officers informed Hu Jia that he had received the prize ... I was able to see that he was very happy," she said.
Just before he was announced as the winner in October, China had warned in a letter to senior lawmakers and the president of the parliament that giving the Sakharov Prize to the civil rights campaigner could damage ties with Europe.
Hu's wife said: "I cannot do much, but I would like to use the 50,000-euro (70,480-dollar) prize to launch a foundation to help the families of human rights activists who are in jail in China," in line with her husband's wishes.
She said rights were still being trampled on in China, with "school books, newspapers, all resembling what can be found in '1984,'" the bleak novel on state control by George Orwell.
She also said that Hu's health was of concern.
"Two blood tests were done in a month but the results of the tests have not been given to the family," she said.
The 35-year-old Hu is known for his campaign for civil rights, the environment and AIDS victims but is serving a three-and-a-half year prison sentence for subversion.
He was arrested last year after giving testimony on human rights in China to the European Parliament's human rights sub-committee by video-conference.
The Sakharov Prize, named after Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, is in its 20th year.
Past winners include former South African leader Nelson Mandela, detained Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.
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