Oman, 2005 — dissident coup conspiracy

Event Summary

This entry is coded 26 January 2005, corresponding to the mass arrests in Oman of an alleged clandestine Islamist network drawn from the majority Ibadi sect. In late December 2004 and January 2005 Omani authorities detained between one and three hundred suspects, including civil servants, military personnel, preachers, Islamic scholars, and university professors, and eventually put 31 on trial. They were charged with joining a secret organization first set up in 1982, forming a military group known as al-Bashaer, raising funds and conducting military training, smuggling and holding illegal arms, and forming a committee to take control of the oil and gas fields, all as part of a plot to overthrow the government of Sultan Qaboos bin Said.

In May 2005 the state security court sentenced the 31 to jail terms of between one and twenty years for plotting to overthrow the regime and membership of a banned organization; Sultan Qaboos ratified the sentences but pardoned all 31 in June 2005. Defense lawyers argued the accused had merely sought to promote Ibadi teachings. The 26 January 2005 coding sits in this late-January arrest period, which Oman publicly confirmed at the end of the month.