Armagh man could be extradited to Colombia

Martin McCauley, one of the ‘Colombia 3’ who were arrested in South America in 2001, believes the British are plotting to send him back there after a court ordered his extradition to the north of Ireland.

A Dublin court agreed to hand the County Armagh man over to the PSNI last Friday. A judge ordered him to surrender himself within two weeks.

Mr McCauley, a former Sinn Féin election worker who now lives in County Kildare, is wanted in connection to an IRA attack near Lurgan, in October 1982.

Speaking on behalf of his client, lawyer Fearghál Shiels, of Madden and Finucane, said British authorities “want to secure his onward extradition to Colombia”.

In 2001 the 61-year-old was arrested along with Niall Connolly and James Monaghan in Colombia and accused of training rebels for the Provisional IRA.

The three men were initially cleared of the charge, but were later convicted on appeal and sentenced to 17 years in jail. They avoided a return to prison after fleeing Colombia, resurfacing in Ireland a year later.

Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace had granted an amnesty to the three in April 2000, however, this was revoked last May, which is being appealed.

Mr Shiels said his client believes the British plan to send his client back to South America.

“Our client has genuine and well-founded concerns ... (this is a) motivated attempt by the UK authorities to secure his onward extradition to Colombia, a country with which Ireland has no extradition treaty,” he said.

“It is apparent from the papers before the court that in July 2024, before Mr McCauley was arrested at his home, that the UK was seeking information from Colombian authorities, which it was not entitled to, in respect of our client’s status in that country.”

It is understood any attempt to extradite Mr McCauley from the north of Ireland must be referred back to the High Court in Dublin.

Mr Shiels added that they are “currently considering the long and complex judgment with our client and will advise him in respect of a further appeal”.

In 1982 Mr McCauley was with 17-year-old Michael Tighe when he was shot dead by the RUC in a ‘shoot-to-kill’ targeted ambush in County Armagh in November 1982.

Mr McCauley, who was 19 at the time, was shot three times and seriously injured in the gun attack at a hay shed near Lurgan.

Both were unarmed and no warning was shouted before the Crown forces opened fire.

In 1985 Mr McCauley was convicted of the possession of three rifles and given a two-year sentence suspended for three years.

In subsequent years it emerged that MI5 had planted a listening device inside the hay shed and that the killing of Mr Tighe had been recorded.

The existence of the recording was not made available at Mr McCauley’s trial. Both the RUC and MI5 subsequently destroyed copies of the recordin.

In 2014 Mr McCauley’s conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal.

The murder of Michael Tighe is one of a series of shoot-to-kill state killings carried out against unarmed republicans in November 1982.

The dead included Gervais McKerr, Eugene Toman and Sean Burns, who were also killed near Lurgan. The following month INLA Volunteers Seamus Grew and Roddy Carroll were shot dead outside Armagh.

Separately, another republican, Jim Donegan, is facing extradition to the North on legacy charges dating back to the 70s. Mr Donegan, who is in recovery from heart surgery, had his case adjourned with another hearing in two weeks.

The 1916 Societies has expressed its solidarity to both men and pointed to the hypocrisy of the approach by London and Dublin to matters relating to the legacy of the conflict.

They said it is “shameful” that the 26 county state is facilitating the extradition of Irish Republicans after the British government passed a legacy bill “to ensure British combatants receive immunity for war crimes in Ireland.”

Urgent Appeal