THE Taoiseach has intervened with the president of Colombia on behalf of the three Irish republicans charged with training antigovernment Farc guerrillas, the Sunday Tribune has learned.

Bertie Ahern wrote to the Colombian president, Alvaro Uribe, earlier this year to emphasise that the men, known as the Colombia Three, get a fair trial.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Cowen, wrote a similar letter to the Colombian minister for external affairs, Carolina Barco, and followed it up with two faceto-face meetings, the latest in New York a few weeks ago.

Details of the contacts were disclosed to a private meeting of the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee during the week. TDs were told by officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs that the outcome of the trial would be heavily influenced by political considerations.

The three Irishmen, Jim Monaghan, Martin McCauley and Niall Connolly, are awaiting a verdict after been tried for travelling on false passports and training the Farc guerrillas in the techniques of urban terrorism.

Monaghan is a convicted IRA bombmaker and McCauley was also convicted for IRA activities. Connolly was the Sinn Féin representative in Cuba.

The men were arrested at Bogota airport in August 2001 as they were about to leave Colombia, and their trial was finally concluded last August. A written verdict by Judge Jario Acosta is not expected until the end of the year.

In a briefing note circulated at the Oireachtas committee, Irish officials pledged to make every effort to ensure the safety and welfare of the three men. "This case has received a very considerable level of consular assistance from the department, " said the note.

It added that during the period of the men's detention, both the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Taoiseach had worked actively to assure the men's safety and to ensure that they received a fair trial.