The president of Iran should be arrested and extradited to Canada to stand trial for the murder of Montreal-based photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, activists bound for a rally in New York demanded.

"Zahra Kazemi... was arrested, she was murdered, she was tortured," said Iranian expatriate Homa Arjomand, during a rally outside Ontario's legislature.

"We demand that Ahmadinejad be arrested by the United Nations and given to the Canadian government to... put him on trial."

Zahra Kazemi was accused of spying after taking photos of the infamous Evin prison outside of Tehran in 2003. The Iranian-born Canadian journalist died in prison from head injuries she suffered while being interrogated. Canada's repeated calls for justice in the case have largely been ignored.

Although Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was not president at the time, he was allegedly the leader of the Iran's execution squads.

Now Iranian president will make a scheduled attendance this week at the UN General Assembly in New York.

The rally at Ontario's legislature heard from a dozen Iranian activists, many of whom shared gruesome stories of torture in Iran's prisons. Three buses then departed Toronto carrying some 300 Iranian activists bound for New York. The rally anticipates 5,000 Iranian activists to descend on the UN on Tuesday.