The three Irish men arrested in Colombia last August were members of the IRA who had trained left-wing guerrillas in urban terrorism, the President of Colombia, Mr Andres Pastrana, has declared.
The extraordinary intervention by Mr Pastrana into a pending legal case has led the Department of Foreign Affairs to emphasise that the three are "innocent until proven guilty".
"The presumption of innocence still holds."
In an article in the Washington Post, Mr Pastrana directly compared the Colombian government's battle with the FARC guerrillas with the United States's conflict with al-Qaeda.
"Like the United States in the fight against al-Qaeda, we are fighting a multi-national terrorist network. Some months ago, IRA members were captured in Colombia after training FARC guerrillas in urban terrorism," he declared.
The three, Mr James Monaghan, Mr Martin McCauley and Mr Niall Connolly, have been in custody since they were arrested last August trying to leave Bogota airport using false passports.
Attempting to avoid a diplomatic incident with Bogota over Mr Pastrana's remarks, the Department of Foreign Affairs said similar remarks were made in Washington last week by Colombian military personnel.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said its officials in Mexico are concentrating their efforts on ensuring the men's safety, improving their conditions and ensuring that they have access to lawyers. "If the men's lawyers believe Mr Pastrana's remarks were inappropriate, we believe that they will bring this up at the trial.
"We do not believe it is appropriate for the men to react. This is a legal process," a Foreign Affairs spokesman said.
In the article for the Washington Post, Mr Pastrana said: "In the wake of September 11th, both Colombians and Americans more clearly understand what is at stake in helping us achieve peace and prosperity.
"With billions of dollars flowing into terrorist groups from the drug trade, Colombia has become the theatre of operations in which the global campaign against terrorism is being waged in Latin America."
One of the men's lawyers, Mr Agustin Jimenez Cuello, speaking during a brief visit to Dublin, said the men's trial could open in a month's time.
If found guilty, they could face up to 15 years in jail.
"The situation continues to be very serious, even though we have got the men into a jail that is a little better than the one they were in. However, the conditions are still very dangerous."
The case had attracted "great attention" in Colombia, said Mr Jimenez, who is one of the country's foremost human rights lawyers.
"There is a lot of political interest," he said.
Acknowledging the Irish Government's assistance, he said: "In general, I believe that they have done a lot.
"But sometimes they are a little timid and they do not go far enough."
