Columbia 3 supporters seek quick appeal

A support group for three Irishmen convicted of using false passports in Columbia this evening called for the Colombian Judicial…

A support group for three Irishmen convicted of using false passports in Columbia this evening called for the Colombian Judicial system to quickly expedite a legal challenge to not-guilty verdicts handed to the men on charges that they trained Colombian rebels.

Mr Niall Connolly, Mr James Monaghan and Mr Martin McCauley left Bogota's La Modelo prison at 6pm local time last night but are not allowed to leave the country.

In a statement this evening the Bring Them Home Campaign said it was "very disappointed and surprised at the Magistrates decision not to allow them to go back to Ireland pending the appeal by the Colombian Attorney General."

The court document that authorised their release said they must stay in Colombia until the state's appeal of the not-guilty verdicts on charges that they trained Colombian rebels in terrorist bombings was heard.

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The Colombian government said last week it was willing to let them return to Ireland during the appeals process - if the court agreed and if Government authorities guaranteed they would be brought back to Colombia if ultimately found guilty.

A representative of the Bring Them Home Campaign confirmed that the three men are currently at an undisclosed location in Columbia. She said the Columbian court has turned down a defence request to allow the three to leave the country pending the appeal.

The three men were arrested in August 2001 in Bogota's airport after returning from a region controlled by the country's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

After a lengthy trial, Judge Jaime Acosta found the trio not guilty in April of the bomb-training charges, but guilty of travelling on false passports. He sentenced them to time served and fined them $4,300 each.

The trio said they had come to Colombia to study the peace process between the FARC and the government, which collapsed in February 2002, and that they had used false passports fearing they would have difficulty travelling under their real names because of their IRA links.

The government immediately appealed against the innocent verdicts. The appeal process could take years.