More than a dozen supporters of jailed Iranian rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh have gathered outside Iran’s Embassy in Yerevan to call for her release.
The protesters held placards reading slogans such as "We are standing for Nasrin" and "Nasrin, you are not alone," as they held their silent demonstration on March 19.
Human rights activist Arman Gharibian, who was among the protesters, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service: "We cannot remain indifferent when this kind of repression against a human rights activist takes place in the neighboring country."
Sotoudeh, the co-winner of the European Parliament's 2012 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, last year represented several of the women detained for removing their head scarves in public to protest against the country’s Islamic dress code.
The 55-year-old activist was arrested in June last year and reportedly sentenced to a total of 38 years in prison and 148 lashes after what Amnesty International called two “grossly unfair” trials.
Vardges Gaspari, a prominent Armenian activist who was born in Iran, said he participated in the Yerevan protest to "encourage the jailed activist morally, [...] so that she can feel that she is not forgotten, that there are people, even if few, who are concerned about her fate."
The United States, the European Commission, and the European Parliament have also called for Sotoudeh's release
