By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
 
MEXICO CITY, Feb. 25 - Bowing to a court decision, prosecutors here have reopened the investigation into the death of Digna Ochoa, a human rights lawyer who was found shot dead in her office in 2001 after receiving many threats. Two investigations by Mexico City prosecutors determined that Ms. Ochoa, 37, had killed herself, even though she had been shot twice, once in the leg and once in the head, and an anonymous note was found at the scene threatening additional attacks against human rights campaigners.

Ms. Ochoa's family has never accepted the official explanation of her death as a suicide, elaborately staged to resemble a homicide. This week, they finally persuaded a judge to order prosecutors to re-examine the forensic evidence in the case.

Late Friday, the attorney general for Mexico City, Bernardo Bátiz, issued a curt bulletin saying that his office would "repeat certain diligences" without delay. Prosecutors declined to elaborate on their reasons for reopening the case. Jesús Ochoa, Ms. Ochoa's brother, said he had little confidence that the prosecutor's office would reach a new conclusion, but he was happy investigators would at least review the forensic evidence they had amassed.

"We don't have any confidence in the attorney general's office, nor in the attorney general, because in recent newspaper stories they have continued with the hypothesis it was suicide," he said. "They are practically married to this hypothesis, and they will not change it even if they reopen the case."

Ms. Ochoa, a former nun who represented poor farmers against powerful government interests in Guerrero State, was discovered slumped over in her office in Mexico City on Oct. 19, 2001, with two bullet wounds from a gun fired point-blank and with her hands sheathed in rubber gloves. A pistol prosecutors maintain belonged to her was under her body. No sign of forced entry was found.

Suspicion initially fell on the government, because Ms. Ochoa's work had uncovered torture and other abuses by the military and the police. But prosecutors determined that she had been depressed and had killed herself, first shooting herself in the leg with her right hand, then falling to her knees and shooting herself in the head with her left hand.

Ms. Ochoa's relatives and lawyers have said these findings are ridiculous. They have pointed out that crime scene photos show bruises on her face that were not included in autopsy reports and that doctors disagreed about the trajectory of the fatal bullet. Some say the bullet hit her head from above and so was unlikely to have been fired by her.

Her death has become a cause célèbre among Mexican human rights workers and leftists. Subcommander Marcos, the elusive Zapatista leader, recently wrote letters to newspapers ridiculing the investigation. Last summer, the city Human Rights Commission issued a report challenging the suicide theory and calling for a new investigation. The report maintained that the police made several important errors in the investigation and covered up some evidence. It also maintained that the autopsy reports contained blatant contradictions.

Barbara Zamora, a lawyer for the Ochoa family, said that, despite the family's skepticism of the authorities, the court's order and the prosecutor's promise to reopen the case meant a possibility of getting to the bottom of the mystery remained. "It's something important because it means the case will continue to be open and will continue to be investigated," she said.