January 30, 2004

Colombian government nervous as verdict approaches

The Colombian government is becoming increasingly nervous about the focus on the upcoming verdict in the case of three Irish men accused of associating with Colombian left-wing group FARC, it was reported today.

Caitriona Ruane MLA and spokesperson for the Bring Them Home campaign on behalf of the three, who were tried last summer in a Colombian court for allegedly training FARC rebels, said the increasing focus of human rights activists on the case was making officials in Bogota nervous.

After a meeting with Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos, Ms Ruane told PA News from Bogota: ``I`m getting a sense that the Colombian government is getting increasingly concerned about its human rights image internationally. There is a sense that this case is being viewed as a test of Colombia`s justice system. The delegation of people I have brought from Ireland and the United States has been finding that doors are being opened to us at the highest level.``

Niall Connolly, Martin McCauley and James Monaghan were arrested in August 2001. Their trial, which was conducted last summer, has still to receive a verdict.

Judge Jairo Acosta has attributed the six-month delay in making his ruling to an overwhelming case load, but has said he hopes to make a decision by March.

Ms Ruane claimed tonight the three men and their legal representatives had been told initially that the verdict was due 15 days after the completion of the trial.

``It now appears that we could see a verdict in March,`` she said.

The Sinn Fein Assembly member has been accompanied by United States lawyer Steve McCabe, Fianna Fail MEP Niall Andrews, Senator Mary White and Sinn Féin TD Seán Crowe.

The delegation has met European Union ambassadors as well as the Vice President of the Supreme Court Judges.

They have also visited the three Irishmen in La Modelo Prison.

Ms Ruane hit out at comments by the Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble at a conference this week in Madrid where he criticised what he called ``the human rights industry``.

The Upper Bann MP was reported to have said: ``One of the great curses of this world is the human rights industry. They justify terrorist acts and end up being complicit in the murder of innocent victims.``

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was condemned by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Sinn Fein.

Ms Ruane said tonight the remarks were ``irresponsible``.

The South Down Assembly member said: ``It is very easy for him to sit in Madrid and make such comments about human rights defenders. He should withdraw them and apologise. Journalists today were saying to us in Bogota that David Trimble and the Colombian government are sharing the same ideology.``

Graydon Wilson

Post Office Box 3084

Burlington, Vermont  05401-3084

802/864-6400

graydonwilson@earthlink.net

 January 29, 2004

 Honorable Jaime Febres-Cordero

Consul General of Colombia

10 East 46th Street  New York, NY 10017

 Re:       Niall Connolly, Martin McCauley and Jim Monaghan

 Dear Mr. Febres-Cordero:

             On January 26, 2004, you met with representatives from Irish Northern Aid, Irish American Unity Conference, Ancient Order of Hibernians and Brehon Law Society.  These groups — as well as many others here in the United States, in Ireland, in Great Britain and elsewhere — are keenly interested in the welfare of Niall Connolly, Martin McCauley and Jim Monaghan, the three Irish citizens who have been held by the Government of Colombia since August of 2001.  A report of the meeting provided to me suggests cause for encouragement.

             As someone who traces his ancestral roots to Ireland, as an active member of Irish Northern Aid and as an attorney with over twenty-five years' experience, I have followed the case of these three Irishmen with great interest.  When they were first arrested, several reports about the trio contained information that would cause anyone to be concerned.  Indeed, the discovery that they had been traveling under fictitious names would rightly attract any government's attention.  But whether they were guilty of some manner of prohibited conduct is a matter to be resolved by the due process of law, remembering that the rule of law is vital to a nation's health.

 An important foundation of law, of course, is that all persons accused of criminal activity are presumed innocent until proven guilty by the great weight of credible evidence.   The recognition and full implementation of this fundamental precept is critical to a nation's right to claim a place among the world community.  At the meeting this past Monday, Mr. Consul, you averred Colombia's dedication to such rule of law, for which both you and all the people of Colombia should rightly be proud.  It is at such juncture and upon such basis that I now write.

 Some of the reports issued when Mr. Connolly, Mr. McCauley and Mr. Monaghan were first detained were quickly shown to be untrue.  These would include the claims that there supposedly were videotapes of the men in training exercises or that a residue of explosives was embedded in their clothing.  Other derogatory reports were discredited in due course, whether prior to or during the trial.  Ultimately, all of the allegations that these three men were somehow engaged in activities

designed to undermine the Government of Colombia have been found unsupported.  Despite the Government's burden to affirmatively prove criminal conduct by the requisite character of evidence, it has failed to do so.  Indeed, although the defendants have no obligation whatsoever to prove anything, the evidence at trial actually proved that the accusations against them were baseless.

 I do not here mean to suggest any impure motives on the part of anyone.  It is common among police and prosecutors everywhere to suspect wrongdoing even where there is none.  But it is their lawful duty to ferret out the evidence and to then present such evidence in an impartial judicial forum, where it will be weighed as the law requires.  If the evidence is insufficient, the accusations against the defendants should be dismissed and they should be allowed to go free.

 That is the process that has transpired in the case of Mr. Connolly, Mr. McCauley and Mr. Monaghan.  When you met with the four delegations on January 26, 2004, you obviously were already conversant with the case and the with the law itself.  The only complaint that you were able to offer was that the three Irish citizens violated Colombian law with respect to their passports.  The men themselves do not deny this, nor do they deny the right of a sovereign nation to enforce its laws in such respect.  They merely offer explanations for their motives, explanations that the prosecutor has not been able to discredit.

 There was a question raised at your meeting earlier this week about whether one of the three men had previously acquired some experience with the matériel of war-making.  Of course, what a man may or may not have done some years ago is not at issue.  All that matters is what he was or was not doing in Colombia in the summer of 2001.  I appreciate, Mr. Consul, that you have some familiarity with Ireland and the strife that plagued that island at the time of your visit there and that you had even written a paper on the subject.  I, too, have written a paper about Ireland and know how that exercise can lead to a fuller understanding.  But — without suggesting anything at all about these three Irishmen — discussions about Ireland should include not only its past but also its present and its future.  There has been a dramatic transformation in Ireland among those who had supported or even participated in the conflict there.  Many such persons are now fervent advocates of peace and the achievement of political goals through strictly peaceful means.  Many others have undertaken academic pursuits, have sought to further their educations be seeking graduate degrees and have engaged in the study of conflict and process of conflict resolution.  The war in Ireland is over, and it is over largely because of the courage of such individuals.

 It may be that one or another of these three Irishmen acted improperly in connection with his identification papers.  I do not know.  But if that is the case, it would seem that the appropriate remedy would be either expulsion from Colombia's borders or detention for a period of time equal to that already elapsed.  In either case, they should be immediately released and deported.

 Just as did the delegations with whom you met, Mr. Consul, I would respectfully request that you covey to your Government the great concern held among American citizens as regards these three Irishmen.  We shall similarly convey the same to our own Government.  It has been estimated that more than 40 million Americans, like me, trace their ancestry to Ireland.  In close contests, as the coming elections here in the United States are projected to be, many Irish Americans are swayed by the manner and extent of the candidate's interest in Ireland and the welfare of Irish citizens. 

 It is our sincere desire that both Governments act in service of the rule of law and peace in the world.  If so, we are confident that Mr. Connolly, Mr. McCauley and Mr. Monaghan will soon be reunited with their families.

 Graydon Wilson

January 12, 2004

Colombia Three result to be delayed

The three Irishmen who are in jail in Bogotá, Colombia, on trumped up charges of being involved with left-wing guerilla group FARC, have heard that the judge in their case will not reach sentencing until "after February". Niall Connolly, Martin McCauley and Jim Monaghan were arrested as they tried to leave Colombia in August 2001 and charged with assisting the FARC and using false passports. Their trial ended in late 2003.

Judge Jairo Acosta is said to have told reporters last week that due to his workload, he will not be able to deliver a verdict on the case until at least next month. He said that he had 60 other cases to consider as well as the Irish one, which ended in late 2003. Judge Acosta had been expected to decide the case as early as this month.

Irish, Australian and American legal observers have attacked the trial of the three men, saying the process was fatally compromised after Colombian officials and senior politicians made prejudicial comments in public about the case, and that the defense evidence exonerates the three. In a statement quoted in The Irish Echo, the Irish-American legal organization the Brehon Law Society condemned the continued delay in the case.

"The old expression 'justice delayed is justice denied' comes immediately to mind," said spokesperson Stephen McCabe. "It has now been some 29 months since the arrest and detention of the three accused and yet no verdict has been rendered. Surely, based on the paucity of the evidence presented by the state, a verdict of acquittal is the only result that any fair-minded observer of these events could reasonably envision."

Legal observers have stated that Judge Acosta must remain free of political pressure in order to decide the case fairly, and have said they fear he could be vulnerable to threats or blackmail from Colombia's right-wing paramilitaries who violently oppose the FARC.

During the men's trial, both forensic and circumstantial evidence was proved flawed by the defense, who provided alibi witnesses and video evidence showing the men were not in Colombia on the dates stated by the prosecution

Trial in Ruins

after Colombian President Intervenes

February 13, 2003 --

TRIAL 'IN RUINS' AFTER COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT INTERVENES

The International observers who have just returned from Colombia with heightened concern say that it is now impossible for the three Irishmen facing charges of training rebels to receive a fair trial. These include Irish Parliamentarians, Sean Crowe, T.D, Senator Mary White, and Irish, US and Australian lawyers. They have requested an urgent meeting with Brian Cowen, Dublin's Minister for Foreign Affairs.

The trial without a jury of Mr Niall Connolly, Mr Martin McCauley and Mr James Monaghan - known as the Colombia Three - has been postponed until next month.

Caitriona Ruane, spokesperson for the Bring Them Home Campaign said the latest comments by President Uribe in Newsweek magazine this week, in which he claimed the men were guilty, had reinforced their belief that the mens' right to a fair trial had been destroyed. 

During an interview with the US news magazine, Mr Uribe was asked if he believed the FARC guerrillas were part of an "international terrorist network".

In reply, Mr Uribe, claimed that the threat posed by FARC was equal to one posed by Saddam Hussein, said: "We have in jail some IRA members who came to help the FARC."

An angry Ms Ruane said: "This trial is a sham, the current and ex-President of the Country have declared the men guilty throughout the world.

"Inside the Presidential office the trial is over. They are not even interested in the defence evidence or due process. President Uribe is using these three men to internationalise the war in his country and request further aid from the United States".

'SHAM' TRIAL

Ms. Ruane described the trial as "a sham".

"We have said from the outset that no evidence will be produced against these three Irishmen. Nothing, absolutely nothing has happened to change our understanding of this case."

"The only so-called eyewitness produced in court claimed that he saw three men training the FARC in February 2001. This is a lie and a complete fabrication."

She said the three men were not in Colombia on these dates and had through their lawyers totally repudiated this fabrication "and can prove it".

She described President Uribe's intervention as "very serious".

"He has now moved beyond permitting negative publicity and he himself has declared the men guilty mid trial." It could no longer be said that the trial process exists, she added, adding that the declarations of guilt have placed the observer delegation and others supporting due process in danger.

"All of these comments have endangered the lives of the delegation who have publicly been accused of being terrorists in Colombia and threatened while the Colombian Police and army looked on."

The Colombian president has also been condemned by Sinn Fein for prejudging the case.

Sinn Fein TD Mr Sean Crowe also said the criticisms by the Progressive Democrats of Fianna Fail senator Mary White were "ill-informed, petty and vindictive".

Last week, Senator White, who attended the trial as an observer, called on the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, to intervene with his Colombian counterpart to have the trial stopped.

"I have now attended two sessions of this trial as part of an international team of observers and I firmly believe that there is absolutely no possibility of Jim Monaghan, Martin McCauley and Niall Connolly getting a fair trial," said Crowe. "And as time goes on it is increasingly difficult for those attending the trial as observers, due to constant pressure and threats, both around the court and getting in and out of the country.

"We will be seeking an urgent meeting with Brian Cowen on our return to voice our deep concerns about this trial and to call on the government to urgently act for the rights for these three Irishmen and to secure their immediate release. This is a simply matter of justice which the government must vigorously pursue with the Colombia authorities."

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