Asia-Pacific
UN: Guatemala lawyer orchestrated own killing
(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-01-13 11:53
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 A photographer looks at a screen showing the suspects in the murder of lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg, including himself (far L), during a report by the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) in Guatemala City January 12, 2010. [Agencies] |
GUATEMALA CITY: A Guatemalan lawyer who accused the country's president of his murder in a video made before his death actually contracted the hitmen to kill him, U.N. investigators announced Tuesday.
Attorney Rodrigo Rosenberg contacted cousins of his first wife to help him find a hitman to deal with an extortionist, when he really was orchestrating his own slaying amid severe personal problems, according to a special international group commissioned by the government.
"We have to conclude that it was Rodrigo Rosenberg himself who asked for help from ... intimate friends and said to them: 'I have an extortionist who is threatening me and I want to kill him,'" said Carlos Castresana, head of the probe into the May 10 killing. "They received his request and looked for someone capable."
Distress over personal problems and Rosenberg's suspicion that the government was behind the murder of two close friends appear to have motivated the Harvard-educated corporate lawyer, the investigation suggested.
"Why the video?" Castresana said. "We don't have all the answers. But we have a theory."
In the video, Rosenberg is seen looking into the camera and saying, "If you are watching this message, it is because I was assassinated by President Alvaro Colom."
The 47-year-old attorney, who served as assistant dean at a private university, claimed Colom's government was linked to a corruption scandal at a government bank and said any attack on him would be an attempt to cover that up. Colom has denied any involvement in the killing.
Rosenberg's accusations were distributed to reporters on DVDs at his May 11 funeral and immediately set an already polarized country into a frenzy of protests, allegations of corruption and calls for Colom's resignation.
Castresana said the commission's theory is that Rosenberg was motivated by a sense of guilt and frustration over what he believed was the government's involvement and failure to properly investigate the killing of his client and girlfriend, Marjorie Musa, along with her father, Khalil Musa.
Rosenberg had advised Khalil Musa to accept a seat on the board of directors of the private- and government-sponsored Rural Development Bank. In his video, Rosenberg said if he were slain, it would be to silence him for discovering the killings were linked to money laundering at the bank.
Castresana said that blaming Colom apparently was a way of shaking up the powers that be and "opening up a Pandora's box that would result on change in the country."
Rosenberg also appeared to be depressed about the recent death of this mother and losing custody of his children, the investigation said.
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 In this October 13, 2009 file photo, Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe (C) talks with Guatemala's President Alvaro Colom in Guatemala City. [Agencies] |
