Iran's President Mohammad Khatami ordered four ministers today to investigate the death of a Canadian freelance photographer who had been arrested outside a Tehran prison, the ISNA student news agency said.
Montreal-based Ms Zahra Kazemi (54) a Canadian of Iranian descent, died on Friday of what relatives said were head injuries and Iranian officials called a "brain attack".
She was detained last month for taking pictures of Tehran's notorious Evin prison, where many dissidents are jailed.
"Dear ministers, news regarding the death of a female journalist following her arrest is regrettable and worrying," the agency quoted Khatami as saying in a letter to the intelligence, interior, justice and culture ministers.
"In a legal system if a violation takes place, it must be confronted legally, but if the law was not respected during the confrontation, then the violators should be confronted even more strongly," he said, asking them to investigate the case.
Khatami ensured that three state agents and 12 others were investigated and convicted in 2001 for killing dissidents, one of the few successes of his six years in office during which he has failed to implement most of the reforms he promised.