MUSCAT, 19 April 2005 — A group of Omanis arrested in January for alleged links with a banned organization and attempting to overthrow the leadership went on trial yesterday in Muscat, witnesses said.

The prosecution accused the first three men to appear in dock of “belonging to a banned secret organization” and of “attempting to overthrow the regime by armed force”, said one witness allowed into the court which was later adjourned for a few hours.

Few details leaked out before the trial and there was confusion over how many attacks on the Muscat festival, a month-long trade and cultural event spanning part of January and February, as well as commercial centers and some 30 people in total, all suspected of being Islamist activists, faced trial.

Besides journalists from local media, the families of each of the accused were allowed to send a representative to attend the trial.

It was also open to members of Oman’s consultative council or Majlis Al-Shoura, and the appointed Council of State.

News of the arrests in January prompted the authorities to confirm that a group of alleged Islamists had been detained and that its members were seeking “to set up an organization aiming to harm national security.”

But they have played down any perceived threat of terrorist attacks of the sort that have shaken Kuwait and part of Yemen.

“The arrests have nothing to do with terrorism or foreign parties,” said Deputy Prime Minister for Cabinet affairs Sayed Fahd bin Mahmud Al-Said in mid-March.

The same month, Attorney-General Hussein bin Ali Al-Hilali said in a statement that the interrogation procedures were near completion and the accused would stand trial in a special court.

The suspects would be “allowed to engage lawyers to defend them in the court as per the law, and the sentences issued against them announced in the media,” it said.

That statement also gave no other details, saying only that “a group of citizens were arrested for being linked to a banned secret organization” and the authorities had gathered evidence confirming the existence of the unnamed group.