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Date Posted: 14:57:38 06/19/04 Sat GMT
Author: Lynn
Subject: Irishmen, cleared of charges, exit Colombia prison (Washington Post)

washingtonpost.com

Irishmen, Cleared of Charges, Exit Colombia Prison
Reuters
Tuesday, June 15, 2004; 8:05 PM

BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - Three Irishmen left a maximum security Colombian prison on Tuesday after being cleared of training Marxist rebels to build bombs and paying fines for carrying false passports.

But Jim Monaghan, Niall Connolly and Martin McCauley will not be allowed to leave Colombia until an appeal by the state runs its course, according to a court document obtained earlier in the day by Reuters.

The attorney general's office accuses the trio of being Irish Republican Army guerrillas.

If the case reached the Supreme Court, legal experts say the appeals process could take as long as five years.

Making no statements, and packed into civilian vehicles with tinted windows, the three men were driven away from Bogota's Modelo prison -- their home for most of the past three years.

The men were arrested at a Bogota airport in August 2001 after visiting a stronghold of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a 17,000-member guerrilla army known by its Spanish initials FARC.

Monaghan, Connolly and McCauley -- who deny any ties to the IRA -- admitted in court to meeting with FARC members and spending several weeks near a large guerrilla camp. But they said they traveled to the area to learn about peace talks, which subsequently collapsed.

A judge in April dismissed the state's charges, backed largely by circumstantial evidence, that the men trained the FARC in advanced bomb techniques.

But a Bogota court also dismissed their petition that they be allowed to await the state's verdict in Ireland instead of Colombia, where their lawyers say they risk reprisals by right-wing paramilitary death squads.

The trio were released on parole for carrying false passports, after paying fines of about $7,000 each.

Connolly was once a representative in Cuba of Sinn Fein, the IRA's political ally.
© 2004 Reuters

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