Watchdog

Amnesty International says more than 1 million people in over 200 countries and territories across the world have signed a petition calling on the Iranian authorities to release prominent human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh.

She has been sentenced to a total of 38 1/2 years in prison and 148 lashes following what the London-based human rights watchdog called "two grossly unfair trials."

To mark one year since her arrest, Amnesty International says it is organizing on June 13 a handover of the signatures collected to Iranian embassies around the globe.

Sotoudeh's detention "has exposed the depths of the Iranian authorities' repression on an international stage," Philip Luther, the group's research and advocacy director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement.

"Today we are sending them a clear message: the world is watching and our campaign will continue until Nasrin Sotoudeh is free," Luther added.

Sotoudeh, the co-winner of the European Parliament's 2012 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, was arrested at her home in Tehran on June 13 last year.

The human rights lawyer and women's rights defender was sentenced in March to 33 1/2 years in prison and 148 lashes.

In September 2016, Sotoudeh had been sentenced in her absence to five years in prison in a separate case.

Taking both cases together, the total prison sentence against the lawyer is 38 1/2 years. Under Iran's sentencing guidelines, she is due to serve 17 years in prison.

Sotoudeh's case is "emblematic of a wider crackdown by the Iranian authorities in the last few years to quash Iran's civil society and silence those advocating for human rights" in the country, according to Amnesty International.

Sotoudeh last year represented several of the women detained for removing their head scarves in public to protest against the country's Islamic dress code.

An outspoken critic of the Iranian establishment, she previously spent three years in prison after representing dissidents arrested during mass protests in 2009 against the disputed reelection of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad.

She has denied all charges against her.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has formally dedicated a new bureau in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, as part of the broadcaster's relaunch of its Bulgarian Service.

The event, held on June 12, marks the official return of the Bulgarian Service, which started digital operations in January.

RFE/RL operated a Bulgarian Service for years during and after the Cold War until shuttering it in 2004.

"When we left Bulgaria in 2004, the dominant opinion was that communism had collapsed, the West had won, freedom would inevitably come, and media freedom as well," Nenad Pejic, RFE/RL's vice president and editor in chief, said at a ceremony marking the bureau's opening.

"As we see today, this is not the case in many countries. Media freedom is a process and it takes a long time to be established," he said. "We hope we can help going through that bumpy road."

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Since beginning operations, RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service has broken major stories, such as uncovering a massive real-estate scandal involving ruling party members. The reports have roiled Bulgarian politics and led to the resignation of a powerful lawmaker.

They've also elicited the ire of one far-right political party, which accused RFE/RL of "working to destroy the Bulgarian state."

In addition to the relaunch of the Bulgarian Service, RFE/RL restarted its Romanian Service earlier this year.

Both countries, which joined the European Union in 2007, have been plagued by rampant corruption.

In announcing the relaunch of the Bulgarian Service last year, RFE/RL's then-president, Thomas Kent, said he hoped the move would help encourage the growth of a free press and promote democratic values.

Funded mainly by a grant from the U.S. Congress, RFE/RL is a private, nonprofit organization that reports in 26 languages in 22 countries across Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and South Asia.