RFERL:

The European Parliament has urged Iran to stop criminalizing the work of women's rights activists and reiterated its call on the country's authorities to "immediately and unconditionally" release prominent human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh.

In a resolution adopted on March 14, the lawmakers urged Iran to release "all human rights defenders, prisoners of conscience, and journalists detained and sentenced merely for exercising their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly."

It also called on the authorities to "stop the surveillance, arrest, harassment, and prosecution of journalists, online activists and their families, and to put an end to online censorship."

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.

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