Dublin will be tested by escaped trio - MP

The Government’s credibility will be tested if three republicans on the run from Colombian authorities return to Dublin, it was claimed today.

Niall Connolly, Martin McCauley and James Monaghan are suspected of fleeing the region where they face 17 years in jail after being convicted of training Marxist rebels.

Interpol has been called in as the hunt for the men intensifies, it has been reported.

A Foreign Affairs spokesman in Dublin confirmed today no extradition treaty with Colombia exists.

But David Burnside, a hardline Ulster Unionist MP, claimed the Government would face a defining moment if the trio return home.

He said: “Their history of not extraditing terrorists over the last 30 years is terrible.

“This could develop into a major diplomatic incident.

“It will be a test of whether the Irish Republic really has turned over a new leaf in the fight against terrorism.”

The South Antrim MP, who claimed the developments in South America proved Sinn Féin was not fit to share power in Northern Ireland, is to table a question in the Commons on Monday, urging the British Foreign Office to tell the Irish not to provide immunity.

The men had been acquitted of an IRA plot to train Marxist rebels in the region.

But after the prosecution successfully appealed against the decision, a court in Bogota has issued warrants for their arrest.

Back in Belfast, supporters are planning a desperate new strategy to win their release.

Lawyers and campaigners for the men are considering an extraordinary appeal to the country’s Supreme Court.

Caitriona Ruane, the Sinn Féin MLA who has fronted the Bring Them Home project, insisted reports they had fled should be treated with suspicion.

Ms Ruane, who has pledged to mount an international fight against their conviction, added: “I do not know where they are at the moment.

“The last time I saw them was the night we took them out of jail in June.”

The campaign leader is planning to travel to Colombia in the next 24 hours to talk to the men’s lawyers and representatives from the country’s government.

She has contacted the Irish Government, urging high-level officials to intervene.

UN representatives in Colombia have also been alerted.

McCauley, 41, from Lurgan in Co Armagh, Monaghan, 58, from County Donegal, and 38-year-old Dubliner Connolly were arrested in August 2001 at Bogota International Airport.

They were detained – as they were about to board a flight out of the country - on suspicion of teaching Farc guerrillas bomb-making techniques.

Their capture came at a critical time in the Northern Ireland peace process and damaged relationships between unionists and republicans as they attempted to run a power-sharing administration at the Stormont parliament.

Although charges of IRA membership were dropped, the three men were found guilty of travelling on false passports.

They emphatically denied allegations that they were teaching rebel forces how to run an urban terrorism campaign.

Instead, they claimed to be in the region as eco-tourists and to monitor the peace process there.

Judge Jaime Acosta had ordered them to stay in the country until an appeal by the prosecution was heard.

After their release from prison the three Irish men immediately went into hiding, claiming they were targets for right-wing assassination squads.