Colombia three trial: Explosives find 'invalid'
Traces of explosives and cocaine found by US Embassy officials on the belongings of three Irish men accused of training FARC rebels in Colombia were invalid, a defence lawyer said at their terrorism trial in Colombia.
James Monaghan, Martin McCauley and Niall Connolly were arrested in Bogota’s airport in August 2001 after they flew out of a sanctuary of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in the steamy jungles and pasturelands of southern Colombia. Authorities said the men had been in the safe haven to train the rebels in explosives and terrorist tactics.
Tests conducted on their belongings showed traces of cocaine, authorities said at the time.
The FARC collects ”taxes” from Colombia’s cocaine industry and has allegedly exchanged cocaine for weapons with Brazilian traffickers in the past.
But McCauley’s lawyer, Jose Luis Velasco, told the Bogota court in closing arguments yesterday that the tests were done hastily and with improper equipment. He said they were carried out by the US Embassy with a mobile kit at a military base where the men were being held.
Other tests done by Colombia’s secret police showed no presence of traces of drugs or explosives, and those tests were more reliable because they were done in a lab with the right equipment, Velasco contended.
Earlier in the nine-month trial, British forensics expert Keith Borer testified that the tests done with the mobile kit did not take into account that explosives possibly present at the military base could have affected the tests’ outcome.
The US embassy did not have any immediate comment.
Judge Jairo Acosta, has 15 working days to issue a verdict.
The defendants were not in court yesterday. Earlier, a dozen protesters screamed “go away, defenders of murderers” as an international delegation observing the trial entered the courthouse.
The observers – Irish politicians and lawyers from a handful of countries - appeared startled but entered the courthouse without responding.
The protesters, carrying a sign that read “murderers” in letters that dripped red, are from the Wounded Colombia Foundation, which tries to bring attention to casualties among Colombian soldiers and assist them and their families.
Prosecutors have portrayed the defendants as evil men who trained the rebels in explosives and terrorist tactics.
But defence lawyers say their clients only wanted to observe Colombia’s now defunct peace process. The FARC lost their safe haven when peace talks with the government collapsed in February 2002.
Prosecutors contend the trio trained FARC members in explosives and terrorist tactics in the FARC’s huge safe haven and have asked for the maximum sentence of 20 years for each of the men.
