The organization behind the "Alternative Nobel" said on Friday that a 2017 prize winner from Azerbaijan would not be able to attend the Dec. 1 award ceremony in Stockholm because of a travel ban linked to a suspended sentence she is serving. Azeri investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova claimed in a statement issued by the Right Livelihood Award that she is under the travel ban "because I criticize the government when it steals the people's money." Created in 1980, the annual Right Livelihood Award honors efforts that prize founder, Swedish-German philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull, felt were being ignored by the Nobel Prizes. She is not legally allowed to travel outside the country while she is still serving the sentence. Ismayilova petitioned the court several times after her release to be allowed to travel outside the country but all of her requests have been denied.

Source: ABC News November 24, 2017 08:48 UTC