Dwyer family meet MEPs

Labour MEP Phil Prendergast has called on Bolivian authorities to account for the circumstances of the death of Irishman Michael Dwyer who was shot dead by Bolivian police in 2009.

She was speaking ahead of a meeting between Irish MEPs and Mr Dwyer’s parents Caroline and Martin and his sister Aisling in Brussels today as part of their campaign for the European Union to put pressure on Bolivian authorities for an independent international investigation.

The family have also met a representative for the EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

The meeting was aimed "to establish which efforts are currently being made at EU level to obtain further information", Ms Prendergast said.

"We will again request that more pressure be brought to bear on the Bolivian authorities to account for this execution," she said in a statement.

Fine Gael MEP Seán Kelly said the Bolivian government and police had "a responsibility to provide answers to the Dwyer family."

"An open inquiry should be held into the shooting of Michael Dwyer" he said. If the Bolivian authorities refused to hold an inquiry the EU should reassess its aid to the South American country and impose possible sanctions, he said.

Mr Dwyer (24) was one of three men killed on April 16th, 2009, in what the Bolivian government claims was an armed confrontation with police in a hotel in the city of Santa Cruz, a claim the family and legal experts have rejected with eyewitness and video evidence, postmortem and ballistics reports.

Croatian Mario Tadic and Hungarian Elod Toasa were arrested during the raid and have been held for three years. Their trial is expected to start this month.