A Colombian prosecutor has called for three Irishmen he said were Republican guerrillas to get up to 20 years in jail for teaching Marxist rebels advanced bomb-making techniques.
The three men, Mr Jim Monaghan, Mr Niall Connolly and Mr Martin McCauley who have up to now refused to appear at what they say is a politically motivated trial, are due to appear at the trial for the first time tomorrow.
"The state prosecutor ratifies its charges and requests an exemplary sentence," state prosecutor Mr Carlos Sanchez told the Bogota court, which resumed for closing arguments yesterday after a mid-June adjournment.
The three were arrested in August 2001 as they tried to leave Colombia using false passports, deny being members of the IRA or instructing the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - known as FARC, the nation's most notorious rebel group.
The trio say they spent weeks in an impoverished region of southern Colombia controlled by the FARC during now defunct peace talks enjoying the sights, researching journalistic stories and studying the negotiations between the government and the rebels.
But the prosecutor dismissed this claim.
"There is not a guide nor a taxi driver who saw them engaged in their supposed bucolic activities or journalism. On the contrary, everything indicates they were training the FARC (rebels)," Mr Sanchez said.
The defence says there is no hard evidence and has produced a video that it says shows Mr Monaghan in Belfast at a time when a prosecution witness recounted seeing him instructing Colombian rebels.
Judge Jairo Acosta is legally obliged to deliver a verdict within 15 days of hearing closing arguments, but admits that the complexity of the case which has already dragged on for more than six months means he is likely to need more time.
Judge Acosta will also decide the sentence and has dismissed defence claims that he is under government pressure to find the men guilty and jail them for as long as possible.