Columbians investigate suspected IRA men

The three suspected Provisional IRA men held in Colombia could stand trial after the authorities today confirmed they are opening a criminal investigation against them.

Security forces in Belfast had said it was expected Martin McCauley, Jim Monaghan and Niall Connolly would be ordered to leave the country and face no charges.

But the public prosecutors’ announcement today means the trio will remain in jail in Colombia while the investigation proceeds.

The men can be held for eight months under Colombian law while the state prepares its case against them.

Martin McCauley, Jim Monaghan and Niall Connolly had been travelling on false British and Irish passports when they were arrested on August 11 as they prepared to board a flight to Paris.

They spent five weeks allegedly training with members of the terror group FARC in a rebel-held zone of southern Colombia.

All three are being held at a military police base in Bogota, but will be transferred to a prison shortly, officials said.

Connolly has reportedly claimed he was in Colombia to learn about the country’s peace process, said reports.

Colombia’s Government fears the 16,000-strong FARC may have acquired know-how to launch an urban terror campaign.

The group has fought its 37-year guerrilla war largely in the countryside.

Officials here have speculated the IRA members were trading expertise in urban bombings for cash, cocaine or weapons from the FARC.

Meanwhile Sinn Fein said no final decision had been taken on a proposed visit to Latin America next month by party president Gerry Adams.

He was due to head a delegation for an eight-day visit, but a spokesman said the party’s international department, based in Dublin, was still involved in discussions.

‘‘Nothing has been finalised,’’ he said.

Sinn Fein has emphatically rejected claims that the three were current members of the party and that Dubliner Connolly was their representative in Cuba, where he has been living for several years.

McCauley is from Lurgan, Co Armagh, and Monaghan had been living in the south of Ireland.

Mr Adams is on holiday and not due back for a fortnight, but an Ulster Unionist minister at the Northern Ireland Assembly said the Colombian affair had been deeply damaging to the peace process.

Michael McGimpsey claimed: ‘‘It is obvious to unionists that the level of silence from Gerry Adams is because he believes the allegations against the men are true.

‘‘The people of Northern Ireland know what the IRA is up to.’’

He said the biggest threat facing the process was the IRA’s failure to disarm.

Mr McGimpsey added: ‘‘Sinn Fein cannot defend the indefensible. It is time for the republican movement to accept the reality of this process. The IRA must honour the Agreement, disarm and disband.’’