Bizarre as the story is, its conclusion is likely to put an end to a political crisis in Guatemala that has threatened the survival of President Álvaro Colom’s government.

Vindicated by the results of the United Nations-sponsored report that has cleared his name, Mr. Colom on Wednesday declared victory over political opponents who had called for his resignation. “This strengthens both my government and my country,” Mr. Colom said in a telephone interview.

The lawyer in question, Rodrigo Rosenberg, was shot five times on May 10 while riding his bicycle. A day later, a videotape that he made earlier surfaced. He said, “Unfortunately, if you are watching the message, it is because I was assassinated by President Álvaro Colom.”

In the video and a written statement, Mr. Rosenberg accused the president and those around him of involvement in corruption — while offering no proof — and linked that to the murder of one of his clients, the businessman Khalil Musa, as well as Mr. Musa’s daughter, Marjorie Musa.

Mr. Colom turned the investigation over to the United Nations International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, which was set up in 2007 to strengthen the judiciary and local prosecutors to help them attack organized crime.

The commission released its report Tuesday after 300 investigators from 11 countries pored over phone records and documents, studied surveillance tapes and conducted 135 interviews.

Carlos Castresana, the Spanish jurist who leads the commission, said that Mr. Rosenberg was suffering from depression after the death of his mother and other personal problems.

The investigation found that he had asked two businessmen, brothers related to his first wife, to hire hit men to kill somebody who was trying to extort him. But then Mr. Rosenberg called the hit men with the description of their target — himself.

After the videotape surfaced, Mr. Colom’s political opponents, particularly business leaders who were already opposed to his left-of-center policies, led street protests calling for his resignation. Supporters of the president staged counterprotests.

“We are an independent government,” Mr. Colom said Wednesday. “This fact united all our adversaries.” The commission never found any evidence that Mr. Colom was involved in the corruption scandal Mr. Rosenberg referred to in his video.

Andrew Hudson, a senior associate at Human Rights First in New York, said that “in terms of this political crisis, they are definitely back from the brink.”

Mr. Colom said that the political crisis had revealed the vast polarization in the country.

“There was a clash in the streets between people who were humble and poor and simple and those who aren’t,” Mr. Colom said. “There is a lot to do to reduce this polarization.”