A LEADING legal expert yesterday accused Justice Minister Michael McDowell of interfering in the garda investigation into the Colombia Three.

Gardaí are expected to travel to Colombia as part of their investigation into three Irishmen convicted of training rebels there, it emerged tonight.

THE IRA will remain an illegal organisation even if it ceases its armed struggle and lives up to its commitment to pursue exclusively peaceful means, Justice Minister Michael McDowell said yesterday.

Sinn Féin has said it has not been negatively affected by the controversy surrounding the Colombia Three.

JUSTICE Minister Michael McDowell yesterday said the Colombia Three “may well” be extradited back to Colombia.

I AM disappointed at the Taoiseach’s defeatist attitude in regard to the Colombia Three.

SO THERE we were, one week after the historic IRA stand-down, anticipating an act of decommissioning any second and what happens? Up pops Jim Monaghan with Charlie Bird on the six o’clock news.

The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has cut-short his holiday in Kerry and returned to Dublin to meet foreign officials regarding the Colombia Three.

REPORTS that the Colombia Three have been in Ireland and under garda surveillance since March are completely false, Government sources insisted last night.

The re-emergence of the Colombia Three in Ireland will not cause a crisis in the Northern Ireland peace process, it was claimed today.

Sinn Féin claimed today that the return of the Colombia Three to Ireland will not damage the peace process.

“I’M back, and I would hope that I’ll be left in peace.”

Dan Buckley traces the arrest and detention of the men who became known as the Colombia Three.

IT would be impossible to exaggerate the political fallout of yesterday’s dramatic claim by Northern Ireland police chief Hugh Orde that the IRA were behind last month’s £26.5 million bank raid in Belfast.

Hardline unionists have called for Sinn Féin's exclusion from politics in the North following a court decision to overturn the acquittal of the so-called Colombia Three.

The Colombia Three have been freed after spending 34 months behind bars after being arrested on suspicion of training FARC rebels.

The Government is to pay €17,000 to secure the freedom of three Irishmen cleared of training FARC rebel guerillas in Colombia.

The Government has reportedly agreed to loan €17,000 to the so-called Colombia Three to help secure their release from a Colombian jail.

IT became very clear very quickly in the course of the trial of the Colombia Three that the prosecution case against them had absolutely collapsed.

THE trial of the so-called Colombia Three, due to start this Friday, will be closely monitored by the main players in the North’s political process.

The group campaigning for the release of the three Irishmen being held in Colombia has expressed fresh concerns for the men’s safety.