MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Colombia requests extradition of 3 Irish nationals

Colombia formally requested the government of Ireland the extradition of three Irish nationals sentenced to 17 years for training Colombian FARC insurgents in terrorist tactics.

Colombian Foreign Minister Carolina Barco said on Wednesday during a press conference that Colombia had filed the extradition request of James Monaghan, Martin McCauley and Nial Connolly, suspected of belonging to the terrorist Irish Republican Army (IRA) and convicted of teaching Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels to make explosives.

Monaghan, Connolly and McCauley were carrying fake documents when they were arrested at Bogota airport in August 2001 and charged with aiding the insurgents.

They remained in jail until 2004 when they were acquitted and released pending the prosecution's appeal.

Finally they were convicted last December and sentenced to 17 years in prison each for teaching FARC rebels to make bombs and other explosives but by then they had already left Colombia.

Two Irish envoys were in Colombia gathering information last week, revealed Ms. Barco adding that now the Irish government "has all the facts necessary to make a decision".

Monaghan appeared on Ireland's RTE television network last August 5 to announce he and his companions had come home. A few days later, Connolly was arrested for carrying a false passport, while Monaghan and McCauley turned themselves in. They were released after being questioned by police.

The three insisted they were in Colombia "learning" about the peace process then President Andres Pastrana was conducting with the rebels, talks that ultimately broke down in February 2002.

During their stay the three had remained in a "liberated" rebel-dominated area in the jungles of southwest Colombia.