Sinn Fein denies Cuban link

The suspects' lives were said to be at risk

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams has again denied that one of the IRA suspects being held in Colombia is a member of his party.

His comments follow confirmation by Cuba's foreign minister that Niall Connolly had been Sinn Fein's representative in his country for a number of years.

Speaking on Tuesday, Mr Adams said: "Our national party chairman spelt out our position some time ago.

"There is obviously crossed wires in all of this. I am going there (Cuba) soon and I have asked our international affairs committee to sort this out with the Cuban foreign ministry."

On Monday, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque confirmed the statement made by his office last month that Sinn Fein had a representative based in Havana.

When the statement was first made, Sinn Fein said it did not have, nor ever had, a representative in Cuba or anywhere else in Latin America.

The statement comes as the Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams is preparing to visit Cuba.

The statement from the Cuban authorities follows the arrest of three suspected IRA members in Colombia last month.

Threats

They have now been moved from the main prison in the capital Bogota for their own safety, prison officials said.

Lawyers for the three men say they have been moved to another jail run by the local police, because of threats against their lives by right-wing paramilitary suspects, also held in La Modelo prison.

The three Irishmen were transfered as a precaution. Their cell in La Modelo is next to a wing where there are right-wing paramilitary inmates

Prison spokesman

The three Irishmen, Niall Terence Connolly, Martin McCauley and James Monaghan, are accused of being senior IRA members and of training FARC guerrillas in tactics and the use of explosives. They were arrested on 11 August.

The United States special envoy, who is to have talks with Northern Ireland politicians on Tuesday evening, said he would be raising the arrests with Sinn Fein.

Richard Haass said: "Any co-operation with people in Colombia that are challenging the rule of law, that are promoting the sale of drugs, any co-operation with those people - to the United States - raises extremely important and disturbing questions and that will be high on my agenda."

The trio were transferred to a cell in Colombia's judicial police headquarters early on Sunday, a prison official said.

The move comes days after a right-wing paramilitary prisoner was killed in La Picota federal prison, also located in Bogota.

Gun battles

The infamous La Modelo prison is one of Colombia's most dangerous jails. In July it was the scene of a full-scale battle between guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries allied with drug traffickers.

Ten inmates died and 22 others were injured as the two sides battled it out with grenades and automatic weapons.

The men deny training FARC rebels

"The three Irishmen were transferred as a precaution. Their cell in La Modelo is next to a wing where there are right-wing paramilitary inmates," a prison spokesman said.

The trio had complained about the conditions in their bare windowless cell.

One of their lawyers had been urging the authorities to move them, saying an explosive had been tossed into their cell and that there was a paramilitary plot to kill them.

Prison officials have denied that the men were attacked or that there is a plot against them.

The prison spokesman said the three men would be held at the police headquarters for "a month or two, until we complete some renovations at La Modelo to improve security".