Bogota suspect moved

THE defence lawyers of the Colombian Three have hit out at prison officials for separating the group just weeks before their trial.

Former Sinn Fein activist Niall Connolly was transferred to a maximum security prison outside Cuba in Boyaca state on Friday.

His two cellmates Jim Monaghan and Martin McCauley were left behind in Bogota, where all three have spent the past year awaiting trial on charges of training Marxist FARC rebels to build bombs.

Now friends and relatives of the trio are growing increasingly concerned for them as Connolly is the only one who can speak Spanish.

The move was slammed by Augustin Jimenez, president of the Committee for the Solidarity of Political Prisoners - a lawyer's group representing the men.

"This is terrible for the defence," he said.

"Connolly was the only one who spoke Spanish, and he helped the others." Police said the prisoners were moved as part of a new program to separate accused prisoners from convicted criminals. Many of the prisoners are at risk of assassination because of the information they could give to authorities. But authorities gave no explanation why Connolly was the only accused IRA man to be transferred, while the other two remained at La Picota prison in Bogota.

The three men have already been transferred four times over the past year, and allege their food has been poisoned and that enemies inside one of the prisons tossed a dummy bomb into their cell.

The men, who were travelling on false passports, have been accused by being members of the mainstream IRA.

They have accused foreign intelligence agencies of inventing the charges to derail the peace process.

Copyright 2002 MGN LTD
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.