THE extradition request from the Colombian authorities for the return of the Colombia three stands little chance of success without significant revision, Irish officials say.

The say weak legal grounding, slipshod presentation and poor translation are among the significant flaws in the 400 pages of documentation sent from Bogota seeking the return of James Monaghan, Martin McCauley and Niall Connolly to serve sentences for training Farc guerrillas.

Further requests for documentation from Bogota and a process of negotiation between legal advisers to both governments are expected to improve the quality of the Colombian extradition bid.

“This is likely to be a very long process,” said a government official. “The papers are not in the best shape. This is the beginning of a process, and it is likely to go back and forth until the optimum level of application is there.

“The legal people are just not happy with the basis on which the Colombian application has been made.”

Another government source said: “It is not going to stand up to any kind of extradition process, it is not even done very well. A 400-page document arrived that was written in Spanish and translated into English over there before they sent it. It is coming from a very different legal system and at the end of the day we don’t have extradition with them.”

The taoiseach raised the question of the Colombia three in talks with Sinn Fein at Government Buildings last week. Bertie Ahern told Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness that the circumstances surrounding the three’s return was clearly “an issue” affecting the peace process, but the case would now go through the legal process and was out of the hands of government.

Dermot Ahern, the minister for foreign affairs, met Carolina Barco, his Colombian counterpart, last week on the fringes of the United Nations assembly in New York. Ahern told Barco that whatever decision was eventually made on extradition, the government expected it to be appealed all the way to the Supreme Court by either the three men or the state.

The examination of the papers from Colombia will take several weeks, if not months, before a decision is reached on how to proceed.

It is the responsibility of Michael McDowell, the justice minister, to certify that an extradition request has been received in respect of the three men. The chief state solicitor would then apply to the High Court for arrest warrants for the three, which would trigger a hearing of the court.

Any ruling by the High Court would inevitably be appealed to the Supreme Court. Domestic rulings on extradition are not amenable to further appeal in European courts.

One of the three men, Jim Monaghan, took part in the Sinn Fein-organised Rally for Irish Unity in Dublin yesterday. Monaghan joined a number of men carrying a banner bearing the slogan “Free all political prisoners now”.

Monaghan revealed the return of the men in August when he was interviewed at a secret location by RTE. He subsequently made himself available for interview by gardai at a Dublin station.

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