Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose recent re-election in Iran as the country's president has been disputed and erupted the country into violent protests, has ordered an investigation into the most high-profile of those recent deaths, that of student Neda Agha-Soltan.

Soltan, 26, was shot in the chest while she was on the streets of Tehran Saturday, June 21st.  Within hours, the graphic video of her death captured on cellphone and posted online spread quickly around the world.

The woman who has become known simply as 'Neda' has become an icon of the opposition movement in Iran since her death, and the source of difficulty for Iranian government officials, who have questioned circumstances of her death.

Ahmadinejad's letter to the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi, describes Neda's untimely death as 'heartbreaking.'  "Considering the extensive machination over the heartbreaking incident and the massive propaganda by the foreign media," he states in the letter, ". . .the involvement of the Iranian nation's opponents and enemies seems certain in order to politically misuse it and mar the pure image of Islamic republic." 

While many believe that Neda's death came at the hands of a Basij sniper, Iranian authorities have suggested it was the work of British or other foreign interests, blaming alternately the CIA, the BBC, and others, including BBC correspondent Jon Leyne, recently expelled from Iran. Some have suggested that the death of Neda was staged in order to fuel propaganda, a charge that British and American authorities have strongly denied.  

Iranian authorities have cited the type of bullet used in the murder as evidence for suggesting her death could not have been from Iranian militia, although they have not produced the bullet in evidence.  It was reported that her body was taken away very quickly by the state, who then restricted the circumstances of her funeral and burial.

The order for the investigation urges the judiciary to find those responsible for the crime and put them on trial.