Colombians charge suspected IRA men

The three suspected Provisional IRA men held in Colombia have been charged with training Marxist guerrillas in bomb making activities.

It was expected Martin McCauley, Jim Monaghan and Niall Connolly would be ordered to leave the country and face no charges.

But the announcement that they have been charged with using illegal documentation and training for illegal activities 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.

They have been charged with travelling on false British and Irish passports and with training for illegal activities.

This relates to allegations the men were exchanging terrorist bomb-making expertise with FARC.

Forensic traces of four different types of explosives found on the men and their possessions is thought to have been used as evidence by the authorities as they brought the charges.

Interrogations of the trio had also raised suspicions when they came up with different stories.

McCauley, Monaghan and Connolly spent five weeks allegedly training with members of the terror group FARC in a rebel-held zone of southern Colombia.

Their hopes of being allowed to leave South America were dashed when the men were refused bail in the Colombian capital of Bogota.

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