Judge shows charges to 'Colombia Three'

A Colombian judge has formally handed over the government’s charges against three Irish men accused of training Colombian rebels.

Judge Jairo Acosta presented the documents to James Monaghan, Niall Connolly and Martin McCauley, who will now pore over the material with their defence lawyers to prepare for the upcoming trial, said Jose Luis Velasco, McCauley’s lawyer.

The meeting was routine, said Velasco, and came before an October 16 hearing in which the judge is expected to rule on evidence and set a date for a public hearing.

Next week’s hearing was originally set for October 4, but allegations that jail guards beat the men that morning led the judge to postpone the hearing.

The three were arrested in Bogota’s airport 14 months ago after visiting a rebel stronghold in southern Colombia, where they allegedly trained insurgents in explosives and other techniques for about a month.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has acknowledged Connolly was the Latin American representative for the party. Monaghan is an IRA veteran who was convicted in 1971 for possessing explosives and conspiring to cause explosions. McCauley was wounded during a police ambush at an IRA arms dump in 1982 and was later convicted of weapons possession.

Prosecutors say the three men used fake passports to enter Colombia, where they trained the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in terrorist tactics and explosives. If convicted, each faces between 15 to 20 years in prison.

The men said they were visiting Colombia to study the peace process, according to their lawyers.

The Colombian government’s peace talks with FARC collapsed last February, keeping alive the war that has plagued Colombia for 38 years.