Adams urged to shun US IRA-Colombia hearing

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams is under pressure from party members to turn down an invitation to testify this week at a US Congressional hearing on republican links to Colombian rebels, it was claimed tonight.

As the MP prepared for a meeting of Sinn Fein leaders in Belfast to consider his move, republican sources said there was a ‘‘strong lobby’’ within the party urging him not to go to Washington on Wednesday in case the hearings would prejudice the trial of three Irishmen arrested in Colombia last year.