IRA suspects moved to high-security jail

Three suspected IRA members were moved to a high-security jail today over fears for their safety.

Niall Connolly, Martin McCauley and James Monaghan were transferred from La Modelo federal prison to a jail run by Colombia’s judicial police force in Bogota, said Oscar Galvis, a spokesman for the nation’s prison system.

Authorities moved the men following pressure from their lawyer, Ernesto Amezquita, who said they were at risk of being killed by enemies of left-wing guerrillas inside the Bogota prison.

The trio have been accused of providing training in explosives and terrorist tactics to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the nation’s largest rebel army known as the FARC.

The FARC has said the three men were meeting with them inside the rebel army’s southern stronghold to exchange opinions, not to discuss war methods.

The Government ceded the stronghold the size of Switzerland to the FARC in 1998 in order to launch peace negotiations aimed at ending a 37-year civil conflict.

Deadly riots and clashes are common in Colombia’s prisons, which hold an explosive brew of left-wing guerrillas and members of a rival right-wing paramilitary army.

On Friday, FARC inmates killed a reputed paramilitary leader inside La Picota federal prison in Bogota.