BOGOTA, April 29 (UPI) -- Three Irishmen acquitted of training Colombian leftist rebels won't leave prison for fear they'll be targeted by death squads, news sources reported Thursday.
Niall Connolly, James Monaghan and Martin McCauley said they won't leave until the Colombian government guarantees their safety from reprisal killings by right-wing paramilitary groups, El Tiempo newspaper reported.
Colombia has been embroiled in four decades of civil war that pits the Marxist rebels against the government and the paramilitaries.
The men -- accused of training Colombia's Marxist rebels in the art of warfare -- were acquitted Monday of the charge and ordered expelled from the country after they each paid a $6,500 fine for the lesser charge of traveling on false passports. They must also reportedly pay an additional $5,000 apiece to exit the country.
The trio was arrested in August 2001 and accused of training members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, in the use of explosives and falsified identification documents.
The Colombian government alleged the men were representatives of the IRA on a mission to establish ties with FARC, an accusation they denied.
