A prominent Guatemalan lawyer who triggered a political crisis when he blamed his murder on the president in a posthumous video actually planned his own death, a UN probe found Tuesday.

In a plot worthy of a movie script, a UN commission determined that Rodrigo Rosenberg asked relatives of his ex-wife to hire assassins to kill a supposed blackmailer. But the target Rosenberg gave the killers was himself.

NONE "In conclusion, Rodrigo Rosenberg planned his own death and for some reason sought to put an end to his life," Carlos Castresana, a Spanish jurist who headed the investigation told a news conference.

Castresana heads the International Committee Against Impunity in Guatemala, a body created by the United Nations.

The affair triggered a crisis when President Alvaro Colom came under fire with the release of a video filmed by Rosenberg before he was shot dead on May 10, 2009, in which he accused the president and his aides of being responsible.

Days before he was gunned down while riding his bicycle, Rosenberg, 47, recorded the video accusing Colom of ordering his death. He named Colom's wife and his personal secretary as co-conspirators.

The scandal even led to calls for Colom's impeachment, but despite mass protests on the streets of Guatemala City the beleaguered president had always maintained his innocence.

Stained Guatemala's image

The UN commission said it had reached its conclusions after analyzing thousands of phone calls from Rosenberg and his associates, as well as following up different inquiries.

They concluded that two cousins of his former wife, named as brothers Jose Ramon Valdes and Jose Estuardo Paiz, were behind the plot. They were now said to be on the run.

The brothers hired hit men, including several policemen, at Rosenberg's request without knowing that he was in fact the intended victim, Castresana said.

Rosenberg had planned everything down to the last detail, including asking his driver and bodyguard to buy two mobile phones which he used to send threats to himself.

Colom said he believed the case was now over, telling the daily Prensa Libre that the scandal had stained the country's image.

He said he had no idea how the plot came about, "but my credibility weathered the crisis."

Among L America's most violent countries

Colom is a center-left social democrat whose social programs and tax programs have rattled the country's conservative elite. He took office in January 2008.

Rosenberg's murder rocked the country to its core, just over a decade after it emerged from a 36-year civil war, during which leftist insurgents battled the armed forces, which often responded with scorched earth tactics.

Colom acknowledged that efforts to counter violence have been insufficient in a country where some 6,000 people were murdered last year - making Guatemala one of the most violent countries in Latin America.

"For me (insecurity) is the historic challenge of this government and the next to come," he said, blaming the drug trade for fueling much of the crime.

- AFP