The accused men are considering making a statement in court this week, writes Deaglán de Bréadún, Foreign Affairs Correspondent, in Bogota
The trial of the so-called "Colombia Three" enters its final week of hearings in a Bogota courtroom today.
Three Irish nationals, Mr Niall Connolly (36), Mr Martin McCauley (40) and Mr James Monaghan (56), were arrested in the city's El Dorado airport in August, 2001, and charged with training left-wing FARC guerrillas in bomb-making techniques and with using false passports.
The men are held in Bogota's La Modelo prison. They have refused to appear in court, claiming they could not get a fair trial. However, they are considering making an appearance this week to deliver a statement, after the prosecution delivers its summing-up and prior to the closing speeches by defence lawyers. At that point they would not be liable to cross-examination.
The case is being heard by Judge Jairo Acosta, sitting on his own without a jury. The verdict will be a reserved judgment and the accused men may have to wait as long as two months to learn of their fate.
If convicted on the guerrilla training charge, they could face a prison term of up to 24 years; the false passport charge carries a sentence of between two and eight years and, because they have already been imprisoned for almost two years, they could simply be deported.
The arrest of the three men caused shock in the Northern Ireland peace process. Mr Monaghan and Mr McCauley are well-known republicans with previous convictions and Mr Connolly was, following initial denials by the party, finally acknowledged to be the Sinn Féin representative in Cuba.
The episode was a major setback for Sinn Féin in the US. The tip-off leading to the arrest of the men is thought to have come from British intelligence sources.
The men have consistently said they were in Colombia for purposes of tourism and to study the peace process there. The prosecution produced witnesses who claimed to have seen them teaching the FARC how to make mortar bombs but the defence responded with verbal, written and video evidence placing the men either in Ireland or, in Mr Connolly's case, in Cuba, when the prosecution claimed they were in Colombia. The prosecution's forensic evidence was also sharply disputed.
The consensus view of the case among neutral observers and non-participants is that the prosecution case has not gone smoothly, but the fact that the verdict is in the hands of a single judge makes it difficult to predict. Supporters of the men say the judge is under pressure to convict them, but this is denied by the Colombian authorities and Judge Acosta.
Attending the trial for the first time as an observer is Mr Niall Andrews of Fianna Fáil, a member of the European Parliament. He said yesterday he felt "rather intimidated" by the atmosphere in Bogota. He had left the city hotel where he was staying, to find a church for Mass when he met a plainclothes policeman who questioned him persistently about his presence in the city and what he was doing there. Mr Andrews returned to the hotel and, when he emerged 10 minutes later, "there was a fellow across the road taking photographs of the hotel".
The MEP said he was reminded of an episode some years ago in El Salvador where himself and Labour TD Mr Michael D. Higgins were arrested and later expelled from the country while they investigated human rights abuses. He would be taking the matter up with the Irish Ambassador to Colombia.
He regarded the trial as "a human rights issue".
"The trial is coming to a conclusion and it needs people like myself and other international observers to come and ensure, insofar as it is possible, that the trial is conducted in a fair and reasonable way." As a courtesy, he had informed the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, of his plans to attend the trial. "He had no problems," Mr Andrews said.