Reports by American lawyers criticising the trial and detention of the three Irishmen in Colombia have been submitted to the Government and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr Sergio Vieira de Mello.
The reports were compiled by two US attorneys who observed the Bogota trial of Mr James Monaghan, Mr Martin McCauley and Mr Niall Connolly who are charged with training Colombia's FARC rebels in bomb-making techniques.
In London recently, the Colombian vice-president, Mr Francisco Santos, said: "If there is a trial that's had publicity, protection of international legal organisations and guarantees, it's the trial of these three men." He added: "The judicial system is independent and there are constitutional and institutional controls to guarantee a fair trial."
However, a New York-based human rights lawyer, Ms Natalie Kabasakalian, said in her observer's report: "Not only has the prosecution failed to meet its burden of proof in establishing the charges against the defendants, but the untruth of every material fact and conclusion attested to by prosecution witnesses has been definitively established by credible defence evidence."
She added: "Now that the defence case has largely been heard, it is more than apparent that there is no credible evidence against the three accused men.
"Forensics testimony offered by an expert of international standing impugns the reliability and credibility of the sole piece of evidence purporting to link the defendants with illicit explosives."
She claimed the men's right of religious freedom had been violated: "The prosecutor appears to believe that the defendants' religious identity as Catholics incriminates them."
In view of "the utter absence of incriminating evidence", she concluded that: "The continued deprivation of the defendants' liberty constitutes a serious violation of their fundamental rights."
Another observer, Mr Stephen McCabe, president of the Brehon Law Society of Nassau county, New York, a human rights group with an interest in Northern Ireland issues, said: "It is quite clear to this observer that the three accused were not in Colombia during the times they were alleged to have been. If not present, they could not possibly have conducted the acts they are accused of. The evidence is persuasive, clear and convincing."
Speaking by telephone to The Irish Times, the two observers insisted on their independence and said they had paid all their own expenses to attend the trial.
The hearing resumes in Bogota on June 16th.