Amnesty International stages culinary fundraiser

Prague, Jan 29 (CTK) - The luxurious Prague restaurant U Zlate studne (Golden Well) yesterday only served roast sirloin to the guests who thus supported three unfairly prosecuted persons in Syria, Iran and China within a campaign staged by Amnesty International (AI), spokeswoman Katerina Saldova told CTK.

The reservations for the restaurant within the campaign Three Minutes Are Enough were already sold out in December, Saldova said.

The proceeds from the sold meals will be devoted to the support of the three dissidents, she added.

"A total of 66 roast sirloins in cream sauce were sold. Each of them cost 600 crowns," Saldova said, adding that the interest in the combined culinary and human rights event had been unexpectedly great.

Roast sirloin in cream sauce is a traditional dish of the Czech cuisine.

"The event Sirloin with Amnesty is held within the framework of the Grand restaurant festival where people can make Internet reservations in the restaurants they want to test," Saldova said.

"Our sirloin was sold within 14 days in December. This makes us hope that people are interested in such campaigns and we reckon with them in the future, too," Saldova said.

The campaign Three Minutes Are Enough was launched last May.

Late president Vaclav Havel was the first to have signed it.

"We have collected 42,000 signatures over the past eight months, including those by a number of prominent personalities," Saldova said.

The petition fights for the lives of Syrian lawyer and activist Muhammad al Hassani, Iranian woman Sakineh Ashtiani and Chinese journalist Shi Tao.

In 2010, Hassani was sentenced to three years in prison in a show trial over his work in an organisation pointing to the violation of human rights by Syrian authorities.

Ashtiani is waiting for capital punishment for stoning over adultery and complicity in the murder of her husband. She pleads innocent.

Shi Tao has been in prison since 2004 because he sent an e-mail for abroad disclosing the instructions of the Chinese government for journalists on how to write on the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre.

($1 = 19.142 crowns)