MUSCAT, 10 June 2005 — Sultan Qaboos yesterday pardoned 31 Islamists convicted for plotting to overthrow the government and for membership of a banned organization, a government source said.
The state news agency ONA said Sultan Qaboos announced the pardon upon his arrival at the airport from a foreign trip that took him to Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
Oman’s state security court last month sentenced the 31 Omanis to between one and 20 years in jail for plotting to “overthrow the regime by force of arms and replace it with a clerical regime, by setting up a banned underground organization.”
They were also convicted of conducting military training, arming members with weapons obtained illegally and holding recruitment sessions.
Defense lawyers had argued that their clients were innocent of the charges and had merely sought to promote the teachings of the sultanate’s majority Ibadi sect.
The defendants could not appeal the verdict but were entitled to ask for a pardon from Sultan Qaboos. Hundreds of supporters of the Islamists have marched in Muscat to demand their acquittal.
The trial, the first of its kind in Oman’s judicial history, was widely covered by the local and foreign press.
Ibrahim Al-Sobhi, a member of the State Council consultative body appointed by Sultan Qaboos, told the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya satellite television yesterday that the pardon was “expected, given the clemency” of the sultan.
Unconfirmed reports said militants from the Ibadi sect were suspected of planning attacks on the Muscat festival, a trade and cultural event spanning part of January and February, as well as commercial centers and oil installations.
But the authorities played down any threat of attacks of the sort that have shaken neighboring countries including Kuwait and Yemen blamed on militants linked to Al-Qaeda.
— With input from agencies
