Tuesday, 23 October, 2001. BBC
News Online
A key witness in the case against three Irish republicans detained in
Colombia has disappeared.
It comes as Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams admitted one of the men was the
party's representative in Cuba.
Niall Connolly, Martin McCauley and James Monaghan were charged with
training Marxist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the
FARC, in explosives and urban terrorism.
The missing witness, a former police inspector, said he had seen Mr McCauley
with FARC guerrillas in 1998.
Without his testimony, legal sources say the chances of convicting the three
men are reduced.
Circumstantial and forensic evidence suggesting the men had been in contact
with explosives while with the guerrillas would not be enough to convict them on
terrorism charges.
Death threats
The republicans' defence lawyer has already fled the country after receiving
death threats from right-wing paramilitaries who said he must pay for helping
international terrorists.
The arrest of the trio in Bogotá in August for travelling on false
passports led to calls for Sinn Fein to be excluded from the Northern Ireland
Assembly.
Mr McCauley and Mr Monaghan have served sentences in Britain for IRA
activity.
Security sources had insisted Mr Connolly had been the republican movement's
contact in Cuba since 1996.
He was believed to have been part of the team helping to organise a trip to
South America by Mr Adams. The trip has since been postponed because of the
arrests.
On Monday, Mr Adams said Mr Connolly was appointed as Sinn Fein's
representative in Cuba without his knowledge or the authorisation of the
international department of his party.
The party had denied claims by the Cuban authorities that Mr Connolly was
their representative.
But Mr Adams confirmed that an internal investigation revealed "one of
our senior members asked Niall Connolly to represent the party in Cuba".
'Proper procedures'
"This decision was taken without the knowledge or authorisation of the
international department or any other party structure including the party
chairperson or myself."
Mr Adams said proper procedures had not been employed in the appointment of
Mr Connolly.
He said they had since been reviewed to ensure that this "unfortunate
situation" did not arise again.
The Colombian Attorney General, Luis Camilo Osorio, said Mr Adams' admission
enhanced "the investigation and confirms many of the investigations that
have already taken place."
The revelations come at a critical stage in the Northern Ireland political
process.
Expectations of IRA action on decommissioning are growing after Mr Adams
called for the movement to make a "ground-breaking" move on weapons
issue.
The Northern Ireland political process has been deadlocked over an absence
of decommissioning of IRA weapons. | 
