Verdict imminent on IRA men suspected of training rebels

A verdict is expected early next week in the trial of three men linked to the IRA who are accused of training Colombian rebels in terrorist tactics.

James Monaghan, Martin McCauley and Niall Connolly were arrested in August 2001 after they left a jungle sanctuary of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

The three allegedly trained the leftist guerrillas in the use of explosives.

Judge Jairo Acosta attributed the nine month delay in issuing a verdict to a heavy caseload.

Some Irish lawmakers and human rights activists have blamed the delay on pressure from Colombia’s political and military establishment.

Renel Beleno, a spokesman for Colombia’s Superior Judicial Council, an administrative body responsible for announcing judges’ decisions, said on Friday that Acosta’s verdict could be made public as early as Monday.

During their trial, which also stretched out over nine months, the three suspects were portrayed by prosecutors as dangerous men who provided the FARC with the know-how to carry out increasingly sophisticated attacks.

Defence lawyers, however, insisted their clients only wanted to observe Colombia’s now-defunct peace process. The FARC lost their safe haven in the steamy jungles of southern Colombia when peace talks with the government collapsed in February 2002.

The three defendants are charged with training terrorists and travelling to Colombia on false identities and passports.

The terrorism charges carry sentences of between eight and 14 years in prison, and the false identity charges between two and eight years. If found guilty on both charges, the men could face up to 22 years in prison.

Monaghan is an IRA veteran who was convicted in 1971 for possessing explosives and conspiring to cause explosions.

Connolly lived in Cuba for several years, where he served as the Latin American representative for Northern Ireland’s Sinn Fein, the IRA’s political wing, party leaders have acknowledged.

McCauley was wounded during a police ambush at an IRA arms dump in 1982 and was later convicted of weapons possession.

The FARC and a smaller rebel group have been battling to topple the government and establish a Marxist state in Colombia for four decades.