The value of Mr Peter Robinson's knowledge of the Irish Republican Army was questioned in a Bogota courtroom yesterday. The Democratic Unionist MP's name came up on the last day of hearings in the case of the so-called "Colombia Three".
Three Irish citizens, Mr Martin McCauley (40), Mr James Monaghan (58) and Mr Niall Connolly (38), are charged with training Colombia's FARC rebels in IRA bomb-making techniques and with travelling on false passports.
In one of a series of concluding statements by defence lawyers, Mr Jose Luis Velasco said that the former head of the Colombian armed forces, Gen Fernando Tapias, had presented a document to a committee of the US Congress in which Mr Robinson was referred to as an expert on the IRA and was quoted describing Mr Monaghan as an IRA specialist in explosives.
But it was pointed out by members of the congressional committee at the time that Mr Robinson was an opponent of the Irish peace process.
At this point in yesterday's proceedings, Mr Velasco was interrupted by the State Prosecutor, Mr Carlos Sanchez, who accused him of introducing irrelevant material: "Peter Robinson, whoever he is, is not part of this case."
Mr Velasco responded by pointing out that the report by Gen Tapias, including the views of Mr Robinson, had been submitted previously by the prosecution in the case. Intelligence reports of this kind should not be part of the trial process, he said.
Responding to a prosecution claim that no witnesses had been produced to back up the men's claim that they were merely visiting Colombia as tourists and students of the country's peace process, Mr Velasco said a formal request had in fact been made by the Belfast firm of Madden and Finucane to go to the FARC zone in search of potential witnesses. Despite the fact that this request had the support of the Irish Government, it was turned down by the Colombian authorities.
Another defence lawyer, Mr Pedro Mahecha, called on the judge, Dr Jairo Acosta, to launch a criminal investigation of the prosecutor for his "offensiveness" to an Irish diplomat, Ms Sile Maguire.
She had previously given evidence of meeting one of the defendants, Mr Niall Connolly, in Havana at a time when the prosecution claimed he was in Colombia training the FARC. In his summing-up, the prosecutor had accused Ms Maguire of having a "selective memory" and "hiding behind diplomatic immunity".
Mr Mahecha apologised "to the Irish people" for the "insult" to Ms Maguire, who is First Secretary at the Irish Embassy in Mexico. He said it went against diplomatic norms and "would no doubt give rise to exchanges of diplomatic notes".
He said the prosecutor should himself be prosecuted for insulting a foreign diplomat and he cited a provision of the penal code which imposed a sentence of one to three years in prison for such an offence.
Continuing, Mr Mahecha pointed out that a key prosecution witness and alleged FARC deserter, Edwin Giovanny Rodriguez, testified that he had known about the capture of the three Irishmen at a time when prisoners were being exchanged between the FARC and the Colombian armed forces.
But Mr Mahecha produced a report from the newspaper El Tiempo about the prisoner exchange, showing that it took place on June 28th, 2001, more than six weeks before the arrest of the Irishmen on August 11th.
He claimed the original detention of the men was arbitrary, as there were no warrants. In addition, the arrest was carried out by military officers, which was illegal in Colombia unless a crime was being committed at the time.
He presented copies of pages from The Irish Times and the Irish News containing articles to which contemporaneous reference had been made in videos of meetings and discussions in Ireland in which James Monaghan had taken part.
The first was an article about Colombia by Ana Carrigan, published in The Irish Times on February 7th, 2001, and the second, an Irish News column by Brian Feeney which appeared on February 22nd, 2001. He said these articles contradicted the evidence of a prosecution witness who claimed to have seen Mr Monaghan and his two colleagues in the FARC zone between February 5th and 25th, 2001.
The hearings in the case have now concluded and a written verdict is expected within the next two months.
Verdict that will reverberate far beyond Bogota: Weekend