THE COLOMBIAN government hopes the so-called “Colombia Three” will eventually be brought to justice, the country’s ambassador to London has said during a visit to Ireland.
Ambassador Mauricio Rodriguez Munera, who also has responsibility for Ireland, was in Dublin yesterday to present his credentials to President Mary McAleese.
Discussing the case of Niall Connolly, James Monaghan and Martin McCauley – who fled Colombia and surfaced in Ireland in 2005 despite having been instructed to remain in the South American state pending the outcome of a second trial, which sentenced them to 17 years in prison – Mr Munera said the matter had “not been forgotten” in his country.
“Colombia has provided to Ireland all the information related to this case and we do hope, we are confident, that the judicial system in Ireland takes care of this case properly,” he told The Irish Times.
“We have the hope that they are brought to justice, of course while respecting the autonomy of the judicial system and the autonomy of the Irish Government to handle this case.”
In 2008, Colombia’s vice-president Francisco Santos Calderon, during a visit to Belfast, called for the extradition of the three men, and described the issue as a “thorn” in relations between Bogota and Dublin.
The trio were arrested in August 2001 and charged with training Farc guerrillas. After a lengthy trial, they were convicted in April 2004 of using false passports, but found not guilty on the main charge of training Farc. In December 2004, an appeal tribunal in Colombia convicted them on the Farc-related charge.
An extradition request was lodged by the Colombian authorities in September 2005 but the Department of Justice wrote back, via the Department of Foreign Affairs, pointing out that there was no extradition agreement between the two countries.
“We hope a solution is reached,” Mr Munera said yesterday. “We will co-operate as much as possible to make sure these cases are finally settled . . . It is a big story for Colombia because of course thousands and thousands of Colombians have lost their lives due to the terrorist acts of the Farc. To find that the Farc had the support and help of people outside Colombia is very sad.”