New claims have emerged in the case of a Tipperary man shot dead in Bolivia in 2009.
24 year-old Michael Dwyer, from Ballyinderry in Co Tipperary, was killed in April 2009 when Bolivian police stormed the hotel in which he was staying.
The police operation was said to have been a response to an alleged plot to assassinate the Bolivian president Evo Morales.
It is being reported that a man who was staying on the same floor of the hotel as Mr Dwyer claims there was no shoot-out on the night in question and that he believes the gunfire was not consistent with crossfire. He also maintains that the shots themselves sounded like blanks
.
Speaking to the Irish Times Marcos Brandt recalled a large explosion before a uniformed man appeared at the door to his hotel room, telling him to lie on the floor.
He went on to say that there were two to five minutes of calm before he heard shooting. When that shooting did start, he said, it did not sound like crossfire.
Bolivian authorities have always claimed that Mr Dwyer was pursued back to the hotel room where a shoot-out took place.
Mr Brandt went on to say that he thought the shots that were fired were discharged to make it simulate a gun battle.
