Deaglán de Bréadún, Foreign Affairs Correspondent, examines the events which led up to yesterday's verdict on the so-called 'Colombia Three'
Reports of a negative appeal ruling in the case of the so-called "Colombia Three" accompanied by heavy sentences of up to 17 years will come as a major surprise to many of their supporters.
Campaigners had grounds for believing that the verdict of "not guilty" on the charge of training FARC Marxist rebels would be upheld and that the three Irishmen would be coming home in the near future.
The prosecution case relied heavily on alleged FARC deserters whose evidence was challenged by the defence as contradictory. In the original verdict last April, Judge Jairo Acosta ordered that these two witnesses be investigated for possible perjury.
The implications of such an investigation for the Colombian security services could have been serious, especially if it were found that the alleged deserters were in fact stooges purveying fabricated evidence, as the defence lawyers had suggested.
The judge in the trial did not find the deserters' evidence persuasive, but it appears that the opposite is true of the appeal. But without reading the detailed text of the latest ruling, speculation on the point may be premature.
Whether the perjury investigation will now proceed is unclear. It is understood that a counter-appeal cannot be lodged until January 12th, when the courts resume in Colombia.
In the meantime, it is unclear whether the Colombian authorities know the whereabouts of Niall Connolly (39), James Monaghan (59) and Martin McCauley (42).
The "Colombia Three" affair has now dragged on for more than three years. It began when the three men, travelling under assumed names, arrived at Bogota's El Dorado Airport on an internal flight on August 11th, 2001.
The trio had come from the so-called demilitarised zone controlled by Colombia's main rebel army, the FARC (a Spanish acronym for Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia).
The three were no ordinary travellers. All were Irish republicans, and two had received jail sentences for their activities.
James "Mortar" Monaghan, was a well-known figure in republican circles back home, who had escaped from a cell in Dublin's Green Street courthouse in 1976 following an explosion at the building.
Martin McCauley was 19 years younger, but had in his teens been ambushed by security forces monitoring an arms cache in an isolated farmyard near Lurgan, Co Armagh. Another youth with him, Michael Tighe (17), was shot dead.
The third man was Niall Connolly, 36 at the time, the youngest in the group and the only one with fluent Spanish. He had been a development aid worker in Latin America and was then based in Cuba.
Although the party denied it initially, he was Sinn Féin's man in Havana. He has no previous convictions.
When they arrived at Bogota Airport from the FARC-controlled town of San Vicente del Caguan, the Colombian military was waiting and the men were seized.
There was little trouble penetrating the cover of both Monaghan and McCauley, as British authorities were able to identify their fingerprints. Connolly was more difficult: he was posing as David Bracken.
The military used a forensic machine from the US embassy to examine the men's clothing and baggage. Initially it found traces of cocaine and explosives, but this test was adjudged illegal because there was nobody from the Colombian prosecutor's office present. A second test found only explosives. More tests later contradicted this finding.
Back home the arrests caused convulsions in the peace process. They seemed to confirm suspicions that the republican movement, instead of taking a genuine turn away from violence, was actually leading a double life.
Eventually, after a protracted pre-trial investigation, public hearings in the case began at a Bogota courthouse.
The men stayed away, protesting that they could not get a fair trial. The two basic charges were: training an illegal guerrilla army in bomb-making techniques and using false public documentation.
The trial began in October 2002 and dragged on until August 2003. The prosecution case encountered considerable difficulty, particularly in producing witnesses. The charges against the accused rested mainly on testimony from alleged FARC deserters.
One man was on a reintegration programme for ex-guerrillas, and his whereabouts could not be traced. Another refused to come to Bogota because he was afraid.
Eventually the first witness appeared in court but demanded guarantees of safety for himself and his family. The court decided to hold a special session in the city of Medellin to facilitate the second witness.
The FARC deserters claimed to have seen the three Irishmen giving classes in bomb-making in the demilitarised zone at particular times. This was disputed by the defence, which produced witnesses and documentation in support of the claim that the trio had been elsewhere at the time.
For example, the first secretary at the Irish embassy in Mexico at the time, Ms Síle Maguire, gave evidence that Connolly attended a dinner she hosted in Havana for a visiting Irish parliamentary delegation.
This included Mr Jim O'Keeffe TD, Mr Ben Briscoe TD and Senator Madeleine Taylor-Quinn, on January 17th, 2001.
The prosecution had claimed he was in Colombia at the time, giving extramural classes rather than socialising with Irish politicians.
Videos were brought forward by the defence which purported to show Monaghan taking part in events in Dublin and Belfast on February 7th, 21st and 22nd, 2001, when the prosecution claimed he was in the FARC zone.
The videos were date-stamped, but the prosecution said they had been doctored.
Employment records were also produced with a view to discrediting prosecution claims.
Ultimately the issue turned on the credibility of the two prosecution eyewitnesses versus the testimony and documentation for the defence.
The Colombian establishment was in no doubt, and there were constant references to the guilt of the three men by leading political and military figures, a subject of bitter complaint from the Bring Them Home Campaign.
This is a support organisation led by Ms Caitriona Ruane, who spoke out in English and Spanish on behalf of the accused, and organised delegations of Irish, US and Australian politicians and lawyers to visit them in jail (she has since been elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly for Sinn Féin).
The judge, Dr Jairo Acosta, listened to everything with an impassive expression.
After the trial months passed with no sign of a verdict.
There were allegations of political pressure, but the judge protested from behind a desk piled with papers and documents that his workload did not permit him to get around to it.
Eventually the verdict was issued on April 26th this year and the men were found not guilty on the FARC training charge but given sentences of between two and four years on the passports charge.
The verdict was seen as a gesture of independence by the Colombian judiciary, in the face of pressure from the military establishment.
The Irishmen were subsequently released on bail and went into hiding in Colombia. The verdict on the main charge was appealed by the Colombian Attorney General and the men are now reported to be facing up to 17 years in prison.
There is understood to be provision for a counter-appeal. We have not heard the last of the "Colombia Three".