Sinn Féin has again complained that the chances of the three Irishmen arrested in Colombia receiving a fair trial are being jeopardised by comments from leading official figures in the country.
Members of the Colombian military and prosecution service have claimed that recent bomb attacks that caused huge loss of life were a direct result of FARC guerrillas being trained by the IRA.
Three Irish republicans, Mr James Monaghan, Mr Niall Connolly and Mr Martin McCauley, were arrested in Colombia one year ago and face trial this autumn on charges of training FARC members in IRA bomb-making techniques and urban violence.
Gen Reynaldo Castellanos, a divisional commander in the Colombian capital, Bogota, told yesterday's Daily Telegraph that bombers who last week carried out an attack that claimed 21 lives and injured 70 were trained by the IRA.
"There is no doubt that behind these attacks is the training of the IRA," said Gen Castellanos, echoing similar comments previously made by Gen Jorge Enrique Mora, Colombia's military chief.
The BBC yesterday interviewed Colombia's chief prosecutor, Mr Luis Camilo Osorio, who also spoke of an a link between FARC and the IRA. He said over 100 people died as a result of an attack that bore the hallmarks of the IRA.
"The techniques that the FARC have developed in recent years show that they have had technical assistance and used technology similar to those used by the IRA," he said.
"A recent attack in a town where 115 people were massacred - most of them women and children who were seeking refuge in a church - was carried out using these techniques - long-distance mortars," added Mr Osorio.
"We are talking about a type of cylinder with explosives and we're talking about a type that consists of a series of long tubes in which you put rockets similar to those used by the IRA," added Mr Osorio.
The Sinn Féin chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, claimed that such remarks were a "disgrace" and "significantly damaged" the prospects of the three men receiving a fair trial.
He called on Mr Osorio to resign as Colombia's prosecutor general and said that Colombia had a poor record on human rights. "In any other judicial process, even here, that would be a resignation matter and it should be for him," he added.
Mr McLaughlin said he accepted the word of the IRA when it stated it did not sanction any trip to Colombia.
Ms Caitriona Ruane, a spokeswoman for the campaign to have the three men freed, also repudiated Mr Osorio's remarks.
