BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) -- Three
suspected Irish Republican Army members held in Colombia for allegedly
training Marxist rebels say they fear for their lives after a bomb was tossed
into their jail cell, but prison officials denied Monday any such attack took
place.

"They fear for their lives. There is an orchestrated plan to kill them. Last week, an
explosive was tossed into their cell but they were not injured," Ernesto Amezquita,
one of the lawyers representing the three men, told Reuters.

Niall Terence Connolly, Martin McCauley and James Monaghan are being held in a
maximum security wing at Bogota's La Modelo prison -- one of Colombia's most
dangerous -- on charges of carrying false passports and training rebels from the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to make bombs.

But a spokesman for Colombia's prison system denied the trio were attacked or that
there was a plan to kill the men.

"That is a total lie. The explosive attack never occurred. The three are being held in
a maximum security cell. They are safe there and we have no plans to move them,"
the spokesman said.

Colombia's prisons are notoriously violent and clashes between imprisoned leftist
guerrillas and their right-wing paramilitary foes are common. In July, 10 inmates
were killed and 15 were injured in a battle inside La Modelo.

Amezquita, who is representing Connolly, said the men are afraid of being attacked
by paramilitary inmates for their alleged links to the FARC.

The trio, whom British and Colombian police say are members of the mainstream
IRA, told prosecutors they were visiting Colombia to see the Amazon, write about
wildlife and learn Spanish. They denied any involvement with the FARC, Latin
America's oldest and most powerful rebel force.

"They are afraid of eating prison food for fear of being poisoned. They are getting
food sent from private restaurants," Amezquita said. He also said the men were
sleeping on the floor and are not allowed "to see the sun nor to talk to lawyers in
private."

A spokeswoman for the Irish government's foreign affairs office in Dublin told
Reuters she could not comment on Amezquita's allegations.

But the spokeswoman said an official from the Irish Embassy in Mexico City had
traveled to Colombia last week to interview the three men, who had "expressed their
concerns." The spokeswoman did not elaborate. Ireland does not have an embassy
in Colombia.

Colombia's public prosecutor's office has eight months to prepare its case against
the three men, whose arrests have undermined peace efforts in the volatile British
province of Northern Ireland.

They also further damaged already shaky talks between the Colombian government
and the FARC aimed at ending a 37-year war that has claimed 40,000 mostly civilian
lives in the past decade.

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