Colombian prosecutors have formally charged three suspected Irish Republican Army members with teaching bomb-making to Marxist rebels, bringing the men's trial a significant step closer. Prosecutors passed the case to a federal judge on Friday, six months after the three men were arrested while leaving an area controlled by the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The three, Jim Monaghan, Martin McCauley and Niall Connolly, face up to eight years in jail if convicted. According to a defector from the FARC ranks, the three men had been seen teaching rebels to build pipe bombs and work with dynamite. The three men, two of whom are from the Republic of Ireland and one from Northern Ireland, were arrested at Bogota airport last August, travelling on false passports. They claimed they had been in the FARC area to see wildlife and learn about the rebel groups peace talks with the Colombian Government.
Enjoy your stay, boys. They say the coffee's really good. |