Observers travel to Bogota as Colombia Three trial resumes

THE trial of three Irishman accused of assisting South American left-wing guerrillas to develop deadly mortar bombs resumes today after months of delay.

Observers from the United States, Australia and Ireland, including two Oireachtas members, travelled at the weekend to Colombia for the resumption of the long-running, and frequently disrupted, trial. James

Monaghan, Niall Connolly and Martin MacCauley are accused of assisting the FARC guerrillas and travelling to the South American hotspot on false passports.

Prosecutors claim the three are members of the IRA and were in the FARC-controlled south of the country to train members in the development and use of mortars.

It is claimed some of the mortars developed with the help of the IRA were used by FARC in attacks, including one that killed more than 100 people sheltering in a church.

Sinn Féin TD Sean Crowe and Fianna Fáil Senator Mary White travelled over the weekend from Ireland and will be in the court in Bogota today.

The trial, which began last October has stopped and restarted six times. At the last hearing, the defence presented three videos featuring Monaghan, apparently made in Ireland when one the prosecution eyewitnesses claimed he saw the three men in Colombia.

Affidavits from people in the video and those who filmed it have also been supplied to the court.

Catriona Ruane of the Bring Them Home campaign group said: "The prosecution is attempting to cast doubt on the videos; he is clutching at straws and building on sand.

"These are authentic videos, the judge knows it, the prosecution knows it. The prosecution is desperately using stalling tactics to keep these men in jail and it is wrong.

"The Bring Them Home Campaign is determined to keep the international spotlight on this trial. We are calling on the Colombian authorities to release these men. They have spent 21 months in jail and are currently imprisoned in one of the most notorious jails in Latin America."