"In a document signed at the Canadian Embassy in Tehran with the presence of the Canadian ambassador, Mrs. Ezzat Kazemi, the mother of Zahra Kazemi has officially transferred all her rights to her grandson for transferring the body to Canada to rest near her son, thus removing all objections from the Iranian government for the action", Dr. Karim Lahiji, a lawyer for Stephen Hachemi told Iran Press Service.

So far, the Iranian authorities had rejected the demand on the basis that the slain photographer was an Iranian citizen in the one hand and that her mother wanted she be buried near her.

They confirmed that the public Prosecutor of Tehran and the Islamic Revolution tribunals (the notorious Judge Sa’id Mortazavi), believed to have hit Ms. Kazemi on her head, had been present "at times" at the interrogations, but failed to name any of the interrogators.

According to the report, the victim had been detained several days at the office of the Prosecutor, the Intelligence Unit of the Law Enforcement Forces and the Intelligence Ministry before being transferred to hospital, where she died on 10 July.

The report also make no mention of the reason for her arrest, made by agents of the public prosecutor near Evin Prison, but say that the area she was taking picture was clearly marked as prohibited for photography.

Ms. Kazemi was arrested while taking photo from Evin prison compound where families of those arrested during the past month’s students-led popular anti-regime protests were staging demonstration on June 23.

Better known as "The Butcher of the press" for having placed behind bars more than 20 journalists and shut down hundred publications in the past two years, Judge Mortazavi had been promoted recently by the leader of the regime, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i to the post of public Prosecutor.

However, the report calls for the identification and interrogation of all those who, on that period, had been in contact with the photographer.

"All together, she spent 21 hours at the prosecutor’s office, 26 hours at the Intelligence Unit of the LEF and another 26 hours at the Intelligence Ministry", the report states, adding that once arrested and taken to Evin, she had "blackened" the films by taking them out of her camera.

"The death of a foreign journalist is not a trivial matter. Mortazavi has to answer for his deeds. Mortazavi is not fit to be a judge", Mr. Mohsen Armin, an outspoken lawmaker told the Majles on Sunday.

"An investigation that merely states the cause of death is not enough", he told the embattled Khatami.

President Khatami had formed the four minister investigative committee, joined latter by the Health Minister, under mounting international and domestic pressures, vowing he would not compromise in confronting those responsible.

The death of Ms. Kazemi created an international outrage, with many international and Iranian human rights and press organization urging the Iranian authorities to promptly identify all those who ordered the arrest of Ms. Kazemi as well as all those who carried the interrogations and tortures.

Armin, who is both the Deputy Speaker and vice-Chairman of the Majles’ Security and Foreign Affairs Committee also blasted the Judiciary for allegedly killing the Canadian-Iranian photographer, saying heads should roll in the hard line bastion if the Islamic republic's reputation is to be restored.

Mr. Armin singled out Mr. Mortazavi as "the very man at the center of all recent crackdowns, illegal arrest of students, scholars, journalists and intellectuals, including the death of Ms. Kazemi".

He said that Mortazavi had accused Ms. Kazemi of being a spy and then tried to cover up the killing, referring to the fact that the authorities had first said that the photographer died on brain stroke.

Informed sources revealed to Iran Press Service that Mortazavi had summoned the Guidance Ministry’s General Director in charge of the foreign press to state that Ms. Kazemi died of brain stroke and also told the official news agency IRNA to put out a similar statement.

Defending Judge Mortazavi, pro-conservative newspapers claimed Sunday that Ms. Kazemi had a precedence of brain stroke.

"Evidence shows the reformists' propaganda machine has begun its project aimed at removing Mortazavi" wrote Mr. Amir Mohebian, an editor of the pro-conservative daily "Resalat". "Mortazavi is the only Judge that stands to enemies of the regime", said a students group controlled by hard liners.

"Mortazavi ordered a story put out that she simply died of a brain stroke and ordered the family to urgently bury her", Armin told deputies in a barrage of criticism levelled against the judge over the Kazemi case and the recent jailing of a number of pro-reform journalists and pro-democracy students who were involved in a recent wave of anti-regime protests.

"If we stay silent and do nothing about this it will eventually lead to serial killings", Armin said, referring to a string of murders of prominent politicians and intellectuals at the end of November 1998.

Mrs. Elaheh Koula’i, another reformist MM and member of the National Security and Foreign Affairs Committee also condemned the "undignified attack on and beating up of Zahra Kazemi".

She said the killing was part of what has become "an atmosphere of censorship in the press and the halting of all criticism".

Majlis Speaker Mehdi Karroubi, a close ally of Khatami, Karroubi said the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) had decided in its Saturday meeting to forward the report on the Kazemi’s issue to Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, the man who is both the boss and protector of Judge Mortazavi.

"The Judiciary chief will accordingly appoint a competent judge to immediately study the case, and report the results as soon as possible", he told journalists.