MUSCAT, 20 April 2005 — The trial of 31 Omanis accused of links with a banned organization and attempting to overthrow Oman’s leadership went into a second day yesterday with 10 more of the group in the dock.

During the opening hearing on Monday, a first batch of 10 suspects appeared in court. All pleaded not guilty to charges of “belonging to a banned secret organization” and of “attempting to overthrow the regime by armed force,” according to a witness allowed into the tribunal.

The remaining 11 will be questioned today, before the lawyers present their cases. A verdict is expected by evening, judicial sources said.

Besides journalists from the local media, the families of each of the accused are allowed to send a representative to attend the trial, being held amid tight security in a special court in the Royal Oman Police headquarters.

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

“Some of the accused regretted having joined the banned secret organization and asked for forgiveness,” the Times of Oman said yesterday, referring to those tried on Monday.

“Some of the accused declined the services of lawyers, placing their faith in the integrity of the judicial system and expressing the conviction that the court and judicial proceedings would be fair,” it said.

According to the daily, charges against the first batch also included possession and smuggling of arms, holding secret meetings and raising funds, among other illicit activities.

Two defendants confessed to the allegations and said “the organization was aimed at spreading” the Ibadi branch of Islam, the daily also said.

Oman Tribune, meanwhile, reported that “a number of attorneys had refused to plead for the defendants, some of whom expressed their regret and grief for joining the secret organization and begged for forgiveness.”

News of the arrests in January prompted the authorities to confirm that a group of alleged militants 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 Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and part of Yemen.

The arrests were apparently carried out in the interior of the country, a traditional stronghold of the Ibadis, the dominant group in Oman.

Unconfirmed reports said the group was suspected of planning attacks on the Muscat festival, a monthlong trade and cultural event spanning part of January and February, as well as commercial centers and oil installations.

Last month, Attorney General Hussein ibn 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 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.

Oman, which produced some 800,000 barrels of oil a day in 2003, has around 2.3 million people in a territory half the size of France, and occupies a strategic spot opposite the Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the Gulf.