The Government would not say yesterday whether it was expecting an imminent extradition request for the "Colombia Three" after DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson said one was likely within days.
Mr Donaldson said yesterday that the Colombian foreign minister was going to serve papers seeking the extradition of the three men within days. The DUP MP has just returned from a week-long visit to the South American country during which he met the vice president, members of the military and victims of Farc.
Asked yesterday if the Government was indeed expecting such an application, a spokesman for the Department of Justice said: "We will process the application when it is received in line with our international obligations."
The spokesman said he could give no information as to whether or not the Government had been told to expect an extradition application from the Colombian government shortly.
Ireland has no extradition treaty with Colombia, and several lawyers have expressed the view that any request to extradite the three men to Colombia would be rejected by the Irish courts.
However, Colombia's attorney general Mario Iguaran said last month that "international mechanisms do exist that enable us to issue an extradition request".