Chile's Supreme Court has asked authorities in Ireland for help in investigating a possible link between left wing rebels who fled jail last year and the IRA, according to a newspaper report published yesterday in South America.
The court sent a request for information after two women allegedly involved in the helicopter prison escape were found to be Irish citizens and another suspect was Argentine, the newspaper, El Mercurio, said.
However last night a Garda spokeswoman said she had no knowledge of any such request, and the RUC press office said it would only know if there had been a request for extradition. It knew of none.
The report followed rumours that investigators were looking at an Irish connection to the December 30th escape, in which a helicopter plucked four members of the Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front from a prison courtyard. The escape bore many similarities to an escape by three IRA men from prison in 1973, said the report.
