CARL VON OSSIETZKY MEDAL 2009

This year, the International League for Human Rights is awarding the Carl von Ossietzky Medal to the Lübeck-based captain Stefan Schmidt and the Dessau-based businessman Mouctar Bah. In June 2004, as captain of the German ship “Cap Anamur”, Stefan Schmidt saved the lives of 37 people who had been shipwrecked off the Italian coast while trying to flee to Europe. Since the agonizing death of his friend Oury Jalloh in a fire while in police custody in Dessau on 7 January 2005, Mouctar Bah has been fighting to find out the truth about what happened. The Carl von Ossietzky Medal has been awarded annually since 1962 for outstanding moral courage and/or contributions to human rights in the Federal Republic of Germany and the European Union.