No plea was recorded before judge P. Ravinthran and they were only read the charges for recording whether they understood or otherwise.
Ravinthran decided not to record the plea after Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, who led the prosecution's team, applied for the plea to be made after all the accused were represented by counsel.
The original charge in the Malay language was translated into two languages, namely Bajau and Suluk.
Atik Hussin Abu Bakar and Basad Manuel were both charged for waging war and they were also charged for being members of a terrorist group.
Atik Hussin was charged with committing both offences at Kampung Tanjung Labian, Lahad Datu from Feb 9 to March 3 while Basad was charged with committing the same offences from Feb 9 to March 2 at Kampung Tanduo, Lahad Datu.
Also charged with being members of a terrorist group were Lin Mad Salleh, Holland Kalbi, Habil Suhaili and Timhar Hadir.
Lin and Holland were charged with committing the offence at Kampung Tanjung Labian, Lahad Datu, from Feb 9 to March 3 while Habil and Timhar were charged with committing a similar offence at Jalan Kastam Lama, Lahad Datu from Feb 9 to March 4.
Two other accused, Kadir Uyung and Lating Tiong were charged with attempting to protect the terrorist group.
They were accused of committing the offence in front of the General Operations Force (GOF) post in Tanjung Labian, Lahad Datu at 4.30pm on March 4.
Yesterday, all the eight accused were charged at the Magistrate's Court which held a special session at the Lahad Datu District Police Headquarters and the case was ordered to be transferred to the Tawau High Court today.
For the offence of waging war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Atik and Basad were charged under Section 121 of the Penal Code which carries the death penalty or life imprisonment or fine.
Meanwhile, for the charge of being members of a terrorist group, all the accused were charged under Section 130KA of the same code.
Kadir and Lating were charged under Section 130K of the Penal Code read together with Section 511 of the same code.
Both the charges (being members and protecting terrorists) carry a life imprisonment and fines upon conviction.
They were placed under tight security throughout the proceedings and seven of them had to wear the straight jacket.
All the eight were believed to be aged between 17 and 66 and were placed in the front row seats of the court.
Earlier, Abdul Gani informed the court that the Attorney-General's Chambers had contacted the Sabah Bar Council to discuss the appointment of counsels for the accused.
"The prosecution will also contact the Philippine Embassy on the matter in the spirit of Asean and if no counsel was forthcoming, the court can appoint lawyers to represent them," he said.
Subsequently, the court set April 12 for re-mention of the case.
Assisting Abdul Gani were Deputy Public Prosecutors Datuk Nordin Hassan and Dusuki Mokhtar.
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