BRUSSELS, September 14 - RAPSI. The convicted Pussy Riot members could win this year's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought from the European parliament.

On February 21, 2012, five young women wearing brightly colored balaclavas stood at the altar of Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral and performed a protest song entitled, "Holy Sh*t." Shortly thereafter, an edited video of the performance that was uploaded to the Internet incited a public outcry.

Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich were convicted of disorderly conduct and sentenced on August 17 to two years in prison.

Pussy Riot was nominated by German MEP Werner Schulz, who represents the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance, and is a vice chair of the delegation to the EU-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee.

The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought is awarded to individuals and organizations that have made a special contribution to the protection of human rights.

The nominees are proposed by European parliamentary factions or groups of MPs, which must gather no fewer than 40 signatures to support their candidate. Nelson Mandela and Soviet dissident Anatoly Marchenko, who died in a Soviet prison in 1988, were the first to win the prize. In 2011, a group of Arab Spring activists won. Winners receive a 50,000 euro monetary award.