Madam, - Many Irish people would not like to think that the law in Ireland was determined as a means of trying people in Irish courts for crimes alleged to have been committed in another country.
Even though a great number of people might like to know what Martin McCauley, Niall Connolly and James Monaghan were doing in Colombia, it should be recalled that at their first trial, they were found not guilty of the indictment against them. However, not having obtained the verdict which the authorities seemed to want - and such "authorities" were not all situated in Colombia - there was a second trial when, surprise, surprise, they were found guilty and sentenced to 17 years in a Colombian prison. That second trial has since been condemned (The Irish Times, August 11th) by Senator Mary White who informed us that "the appeal hearing in the case was held in private, with no new evidence and no lawyers".
Should there be a prima-facie case for their arrest under Irish law for an infringement of the law in Ireland, then let them face the courts here in Ireland, which is not to say that the sentence handed down in one of the world's most corrupt systems of justice should be administered here in Ireland. Anyone harbouring notions that they should either be handed back to the Colombian authorities or that Ireland should carry out Colombia's laws by proxy should read Ingrid Betancourt's autobiography, first published in France under the title La Rage au Coeur and subsequently translated into English as Till Death Do Us Part.
When Ms Betancourt stood for election to the presidency of Colombia on an anti-corruption, anti-drug cartel platform, she was kidnapped on February 23rd, 2002 shortly before the election and has not thus far been released by her captives. While these may be Farc guerrillas, they may equally well be persons acting for those in high places, many of whom may have been deeply resentful of Ingrid Betancourt's principled stand against a revolting narcotic drugs industry and the political corruption associated with it.
What has the Colombian government done about the kidnapping of such a courageous member of its own people? Perhaps Ms Betancourt is too outspoken, with too wide a global and local stage on which to criticise the manner in which Colombia's political establishment has operated in recent decades. - Yours, etc,
JOHN ROBB, New Ireland Group, Portrush, Co Antrim.