Colombia Three go into hiding
Three Irishmen freed from prison after they were cleared of terrorism charges are in hiding in Bogota and appealing for help from the Government to leave Colombia.
Niall Connolly, James Monaghan and Martin McCauley sped out of Bogota’s La Modelo prison on Tuesday night in two off-road vehicles after they paid fines for convictions on a lesser charge of carrying fake passports.
It was their first taste of freedom after nearly three years in Colombian jails.
But the court order authorising their release also said the trio must stay in Colombia until the country's government had finished filing appeals on charges that they trained Colombian rebels in terrorist bombings.
They were cleared of those charges.
Caitriona Ruane, the trio’s spokeswoman, said the men were very disappointed the Colombian justice system was not allowing them to leave the country while the appeal ran its course.
“We’re hoping to receive some type of direct representation from Ireland,” she said. But the Government has so far indicated it cannot help much.
“The question of whether these men are allowed to leave Colombia is firmly in the hands of the Colombian magistrates,” an official from the Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
All the requests filed to the court by the Irishmen to leave Colombia had been rejected, Ruane said, contradicting a defence lawyer who earlier said one request remained pending.
Ruane said the Irishmen had made security arrangements on their own and would not necessarily remain in the capital.
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 Irish republican links.
