Report Claims Bolivian Police "Staged Crime Scene Where Irishman Died"

Independent forensic experts have concluded that the Bolivian police made the killing of a young Irishman look like a shoot out.

"From the information available, it suggests that the scene had been staged to give the appearance of crossfire between the police and the deceased,” a report obtained by the Irish Independent reads.

The report concluded "without any doubt that Michael Dwyer was unarmed and executed by the UTARC police".

The family of Michael Dwyer hired Keith Borer Forensic Consultants in the UK to examine the evidence made available by the Bolivian authorities.

The technical report examined the Bolivian autopsy and original scene photographs, a police ballistics report, photographs by eyewitnesses, videos filmed by police and a multi-party commission, and the report of Irish state pathologist Professor Marie Cassidy.

The report read: "If there had been a 'fire fight', there should have been evidence of fired cartridge cases and bullets from the weapons used against the police.

"However, the only cartridge cases recorded on the official police photographs were the five 5.56 x 45mm, which are not associated with the self-loading pistols, the only guns alleged to have been found in Michael Dwyer's room."

The guns shown in photographs issued by the police next to the dead men in the hotel room were in a "state incapable of use".

Mr Dwyer was shot and killed three years ago today in a hotel in Santa Cruz along with Croatian-Bolivian Eduardo Rozsa Flores and Arpad Magyarosi, a Romanian with Hungarian citizenship. Two other men were arrested and have been in jail awaiting trial since April 16, 2009.

The Bolivian government claimed the men had been plotting to assassinate the country's president Evo Morales, a claim Mr Dwyer's family have always denied.

Described as a “country lad” who "wasn't even politically minded", Dwyer had travelled to South America to do a six-week security course. However, he told his family a wealthy man believed to be Eduardo Rozsa Flores had offered him work.

The Dwyers said the forensic report clearly shows there was a "manipulation of evidence" by Bolivian police.