MONTREAL, July 23: Canada announced on Wednesday it would recall its ambassador to Tehran after Iranian authorities refused to return to Canada the body of an Iranian-Canadian journalist who died after a police interrogation.

Kazemi was buried on Wednesday morning in her southern birthplace of Shiraz, “at the request of her mother”.

In Tehran, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami called for an independent probe into the death, after the judiciary shrugged off responsibility.

Chief prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi, a zealous conservative whom pro-reformists have criticized for his role in the case, had handed over the investigation into her death to the military, student news agency ISNA reported earlier.

Zahra Kazemi, 54, died in hospital of a brain haemorrhage resulting from a blow to the head following her arrest on June 23, an official report into her death said on Monday.

She was arrested while taking pictures outside a Tehran prison.

Her death sparked outrage in Canada, particularly among its 250,000-strong Iranian community.

Stephan Hachemi, her son who lives in Montreal, had repeatedly demanded, with Ottawa’s backing, that his mother’s body be returned to Canada for an autopsy and burial.

“The minister of foreign affairs has called back the ambassador (to Iran) for consultation. It is a form of protestation that is very noticed in diplomatic terms,” Prime Minister Jean Chretien said.—AFP