Canadian's death in Iran caused by blow on head

A Canadian journalist who died in custody in Iran this month was killed by a blow to the head which caused a skull fracture and led to a brain haemorrhage, a government inquiry into her death said yesterday.

Zahra Kazemi, 54, who was of Iranian descent, died more than two weeks after she was arrested for taking photographs outside Tehran's Evin prison, where many political dissidents are held.

The report, published by the official IRNA news agency, said the blow happened either "because a hard object hit her head or her head hit a hard object".

It said the blow occurred up to 36 hours before she was admitted to hospital around midnight on June 26 and called for a further inquiry to question all those in contact with her during that time.

In a series of blunt verbal attacks MPs accused Tehran Prosecutor General Saeed Mortazavi's interrogators of beating the Montreal based journalist to death and said the former judge was waging an implacable campaign against journalists in Iran.

Officials at Mortazavi's office and the judiciary declined to respond to Reuters' requests for comment on the accusations.