Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Question 245: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if assistance will be given to families of the Colombian Three with translation issues regarding Judge Acosta's decision at the trial and his judgment; and if the translation of the verdict for the families and the Oireachtas Members who acted as observers at the trial will be facilitated. [13918/05]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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My Department has provided all appropriate consular assistance to the three men in this case, as well as to their families and representatives.

The particular judgment, to which the Deputy refers, acquitted the three men on the more serious charge of providing training for terrorists and convicted them on the lesser charge of travelling on false documents. The latter part of this judgment was not, I understand, contested by the men's legal representatives or their families.

When the judgment on the more serious charge was overturned by the appeal court in Colombia on 16 December 2004, my Department internally translated it to enable a fuller understanding of the reasons for the reversal of the earlier decision. Given that we had done this informal translation, we were happy, so as to be as helpful as possible to the men's families, to make available a copy of the text to a representative of the families. In general, however — this also applies to the earlier court decision — the Department does not provide translations of court decisions. This would normally be a matter for the defence lawyers concerned to arrange.