Columbia Three make first appearance in court today

THREE men accused of training terrorists will make their first appearance in court in Columbia today.

Jim Monaghan, Niall Connolly and Martin McCauley face up to 20 years in jail if found guilty of teaching Marxist rebels advanced bomb-making techniques. Defence lawyers and an observer from the inspector general’s office will also give their final statements at the court in Bogota this week, then the judge will have 15 working days to give his ruling.

The three men were arrested in August 2001 at the capital’s airport after visiting a rebel stronghold where they allegedly tested weapons and trained guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

The rebels had been granted the demilitarised zone as part of peace talks with the government of former President Andres Pastrana.

After three years of fruitless negotiations, however, Pastrana called off the discussions in February 2002 and retook the zone.

Edwin Giovanny Rodriguez, a jailed FARC rebel, testified in February that he saw three foreigners in the stronghold during February 2001.

He did not identify the suspects directly, but said that, after the men were arrested, he recognised them on TV news reports as the same men he had seen in the stronghold.

Defence lawyers presented alibi witnesses who said the men were not in Colombia at the time Rodriguez and other prosecution witnesses said they were.

The three men, who were travelling on false passports, said they were in Colombia at the time of their arrest to observe the peace process between the rebels and the government. Prosecutors say they are linked to the IRA.

Monaghan is an IRA veteran who was convicted in 1971 for possessing explosives and conspiring to cause explosions. Connolly lived in Cuba for several years, where he served as the Latin American representative for Sinn Féin. McCauley was wounded during a police ambush at an IRA arms dump in 1982 and was later convicted of weapons possession.