A Sutton man has made a US $1,000 reward for information after a young Iranian woman was allegedly shot dead by pro-government militia during street protests in Tehran.

John Turner made the appeal after Neda Agha-Soltan, 26, was shot dead on Saturday June 20 near the scene of protests about alleged rampant vote fraud in the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The jittery cellphone footage of her bleeding on the street has turned "Neda" into an international symbol of the protest movement that erupted after the June 12 balloting.

Now Mr Turner, who is retired, has taken out an advertisement in his local paper offered £600 for information leading to the “arrest and conviction for the murder” of Mrs Soltan.

Mr Turner said he realised the probability of such a conviction was slim and that his advert was largely a “gimmick”.

But he argued it would help draw attention to the issue and could add to pressure on the sniper and other pro-government militia to relent in name of humanity.

He said: “I was watching the TV and was absolutely horrified by what happened to the young girl in Tehran and I said to myself ‘people shouldn’t be able to get away with this’.

“I thought what can I do living in Sutton 10,000 miles away? So I thought I would start the ball rolling and offer an award for information.

“It is going to be very difficult: look at how long the Berlin Wall came to come down or for Nelson Mandela to be freed.

“But eventually people can get sick and tired of the organisation they are in, we need to make this man feel uncomfortable and maybe he won’t be so keen to pull the trigger again.”

The June 12 Iran Presidential election saw incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad re-elected with 63 per cent of vote but main challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi called for result to be annulled on grounds of electoral fraud.

Street protests have so far seen at least 17 people killed and foreign media restricted.

Mr Turner said he had launched his appeal on internet social networking site Twitter.

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