10-DAY FEAR OF BOGOTA 3.

Byline: MIRROR REPORTER

A JUDGE will take up to 10 days to decide whether the three Irishmen cleared of training left wing Farc rebels in Colombia can go home.

The Bogota Three - Jim Monaghan, Niall Connolly and Martin McCauley - can leave prison this weekend if they pay a $7,000 fine.

The Irish Government has offered to lend them the money. But they will have to stay in Colombia until the courts rule on the Attorney General's appeal against their acquittal. The men were convicted on a lesser charge of travelling on false passports.

They have already served 33 months behind bars.

The Colombian authorities have told their lawyers a final decision on the case will come within 10 days.

But the men's legal team fear they could be reprisal targets for right-wing death squads once they are released. They have filed a request to Judge Jairo Acosta to let them return to Ireland but this was refused.

The three men have denied IRA membership and claim they went to Colombia to study peace talks and wildlife.

The head of Sinn Fein's Bring Them Home campaign, Caitriona Ruane, said yesterday: "The Colombian government created the problem, they need to fix it."

CAPTION(S):

CLEAR: Monaghan