Former Government minister and sitting Fianna Fáil TD Dr Jim McDaid has criticised a Government suggestion that the "Colombia Three" might serve their jail sentences here, and described it as "not a runner".
He was reacting to last week's suggestion by Tánaiste Mary Harney that a prisoner transfer convention should be examined to see if it could be applied to the case of the three men, who were sentenced to 17 years in Colombia last year for training Farc guerillas. Colombia would first have to sign up to the agreement however.
Ms Harney made the suggestion in the wake of legal advice that it was unlikely Irish authorities could accede to an extradition request in the absence of an extradition treaty.
Speaking from his Co Donegal constituency, Dr McDaid said he did not think the three men, Jim Monaghan, Niall Connolly and Martin McCauley should be extradited to Colombia, nor should they serve their sentences here.
He had serious concerns about how the three were convicted by a three judge court of appeal in private "who didn't call any witnesses and just read the transcripts of the earlier trial where they were acquitted".
Dr McDaid said the three should not be required to serve a sentence that had gone "from 17 months to 17 years".
He described the prisoner transfer possibility outlined by Ms Harney as "a non-runner", and said they could not be jailed here "on the basis of the judgment in Colombia". He said that if there was a case to be answered in Ireland by the three men, they would have to be tried again.
He did not believe the three would face long prison sentences if convicted of travelling on false passports. "As far as I would know from my limited knowledge, the transgression, while I'm not going to call it trivial, it wouldn't attract major sanctions," he said.