A young Iranian blogger jailed in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison for insulting the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has died, his lawyer said today.

Mohammad Ali Dadkhah said that although there is not yet an official report about the death yesterday of Omid Mir Sayafi, “officials in the prison said that he committed suicide."

He demanded “an immediate inquiry and an autopsy into why he died."

Mr Dadkhah said another prisoner in Evin, a Dr Hessam Firouzi, “had warned officials in the jail of the state the young blogger was in".

“Dr Firouzi called me from the jail to say Omid had a slowed heartbeat and he had taken him to the infirmary, but that doctors there did not take this seriously and said he was faking it,” he said.

He added that Dr Firouzi reported that Mr Sayafi had also been very depressed.

The blogger, aged around 25, was sentenced in February to 30 months in jail for insulting Mr Khamenei and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic.

Little news has emerged about the case although another Iranian blogger said he was jailed for writing: "Mr Khamenei, can you love me as much as you love Sheikh Nasrallah's son?" - apparently questioning Iran's support for Hezbollah.

Mr Sayafi was first arrested in April last year and released on bail after 41 days before being detained again this year.

Iran has launched a crackdown on bloggers and internet users deemed to be hostile to the authorities and their Islamic values.

Those arrested include Hoder Derashkhan, a Canbadian-Iranian journalist and blogger detained in Iran last November. Mr Derashkhan's family is said to have had no news of him since his arrest.

Times Recommends

• New York has lost its edge
• Copenhagen will fail – and quite right too
• More than 17,000 new underwater species found