A jailed Marxist guerrilla told a Colombian court today he saw three foreigners training rebels and testing weapons and drove one of them around.
Mr Edwin Giovanny Rodriguez, a jailed member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, (FARC), said he was in charge of driving and guarding one of the men, whom he described as a middle-aged, white-haired man who didn't speak much, if any Spanish.
Though Mr Rodriguez did not identify him directly, it appeared he was referring to Mr James Monaghan, who fits that description.
"I saw him frequently because I was responsible for taking him to the room where he was teaching," he said.
Mr Monaghan (56), Mr Niall Connolly (36) and Mr Martin McCauley (40) were arrested in August 2001 at Bogota's airport after visiting a FARC stronghold.
They are charged with training the FARC rebel army in IRA bomb-making techniques and with using false passports.
Mr Rodriguez said that when the men were arrested, he recognised the white-haired man on television news reports.
Mr Rodriguez, who testified in the Bogota court wearing a bullet-proof vest and surrounded by a dozen armed guards, said he saw the man and two other foreigners conducting training classes and then testing weapons inside the stronghold during three weeks in February.
Mr Rodriguez said he worked directly for Mr Jorge Briceno the military commander of the FARC.
He said that Mr Briceno and Mr Manuel Marulanda, the FARC high commander, were among a group of rebels who accompanied the three foreigners to the village of Los Pozos to test various explosives, including home-made surface-to-air missiles. Los Pozos was the site of failed peace negotiations between the FARC and the government.
He said after the tests were completed, the white-haired man got in a truck with Mr Briceno and left. Mr Rodriguez said he never saw any of the three men after that day.
The judge in the case asked Mr Rodriguez for the names of the men, but he said he was illiterate and had trouble understanding foreign names. He also said Mr Briceno had told him not to talk to the foreigners.
The three suspects, who were travelling on false passports, insist they were in Colombia to observe the peace process between former President Andres Pastrana and the FARC.
Mr Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, has said Mr Connolly was the Latin American representative for the party.