The Hindu : International : Jail for Irishmen in Colombia

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 18, 2004

International

International

Jail for Irishmen in Colombia

Bogota: A Judge in Colombia has overturned the acquittal of three Irishmen charged with training Marxist rebels and sentenced each to at least 17 years in prison. Judge Marta Lucia Tamayo issued the guilty verdicts against James Monaghan, Martin McCauley and Niall Connolly, all of whom are in hiding, after the prosecution had appealed against a lower court verdict clearing the men of charges that they had trained guerillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in explosives techniques. The men were detained at Bogota airport in August 2001 as they prepared to leave Colombia after spending five weeks in a government-sanctioned rebel enclave in southern Colombia. The prosecution had alleged they were active members of the Irish republican paramilitary group the IRA who had been in Colombia on several occasions meeting FARC members and training them in bomb-making and urban guerilla tactics. The men at first claimed to be on holiday in the rebel zone, but later acknowledged they had been in the area to meet rebel leaders. Their purpose, they said, was to learn about the now defunct peace process from FARC leaders. —

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