Monika Silva Koniuszek died from a blow to the head and strangulation, a postmortem found, despite government claim of suicide

Campaigners in Ecuador say a Polish anti-corruption activist who investigated allegations against the family business of the country’s rightwing president was murdered to silence her.

Monika Silva Koniuszek, 41, was found dead in her home in Montañita, a coastal town in Ecuador’s Santa Elena province. The single mother of daughters aged four and nine, was found on the floor with a noose around her neck on 8 June.

A day after her death, and before autopsy results had been released, Ecuador’s interior minister John Reimberg said that the initial hypothesis was that it was a suicide: “The necessary evidence to reach that conclusion was found at the scene,” he told local media.

However, on Friday, a postmortem in Guayaquil found that the cause of death was a blow to the head and strangulation.