Evidence on Colombia Three ‘invalid’

TRACES of explosives and cocaine found by US Embassy officials on the belongings of three men linked to the IRA are invalid, a defence lawyer said at their terrorism trial in Colombia yesterday.

James Monaghan, Martin McCauley and Niall Connolly were arrested in Bogota's airport in August 2001 after they flew out of a sanctuary of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, in the steamy jungles and pasturelands of southern Colombia.

Authorities said the men had been in the safe haven to train the rebels in explosives and terrorist tactics.