DENPASAR, Indonesia : Two Australians were sentenced to death by an Indonesian court on Tuesday for leading a drug ring exporting heroin to Australia through the resort island of Bali.
Two others got life in prison on the second day of sentencing in the case of the so-called Bali Nine, which has irked many in Australia. Two defendants were given life terms on Monday.
Andrew Chan, 21, and Myuran Sukumaran, 24, were both found guilty and given the death penalty in line with the recommendations of prosecutors.
Chan nodded repeatedly when informed by the court translator but made no comment, while Sukumaran remained attentive and calm as he stood up to hear the verdict read.
"We will advise our client to make an appeal," Chan's lawyer Muhammad Rifan told journalists. Rifan, who is also defending Sukumaran, said that he will advise an appeal for his case as well.
Judges reading the verdict in turn said that Sukumaran had been proven "to have ordered or organized the export of first class narcotics from Bali."
"The defendant also funded and arranged the transport and accommodations for his friends," they said.
"According to the teachings of various religions, the death penalty can be justified," said judge Arief Supratman, who explained how the court had prepared itself to give Chan the ultimate penalty.
"We prepared ourselves mentally. The entire panel of judges prayed according to their respective beliefs. We meditated until we were really convinced that this is the verdict to be made," he said.
He said that the judges would justify the verdict "to God Almighty, to the nation and the state, and to the public in general."
The sentence could become an irritant to relations between Indonesia and Australia, which abolished the death penalty more than 20 years ago. All nine defendants are Australian.
Many in Australia were angered after it emerged that they were arrested in Indonesia, where capital punishment is legal, after a tip-off from Australian authorities.
Before Chan's sentence was handed down, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer reaffirmed his government's position.
"We will always make representations on behalf of Australian citizens who are given the death penalty, we will always seek clemency on their behalf," he told the Australian parliament.
In the first verdicts Monday, Renae Lawrence and Scott Rush were each given life sentences. Prosecutors had only asked for a 20-year term for Lawrence, 28, the only woman on trial.
In separate trials Tuesday, judges also handed life sentences to Michael Czugaj, 20, and Martin Eric Stephens, 28. The verdicts were as the prosecutors had recommended.
Czugaj, Stephens, Lawrence and Rush were the four alleged carriers arrested at Bali airport while awaiting a flight to Australia. The four were caught with packages of heroin allegedly strapped to their bodies.
While Czugaj appeared calm and did not show any particular emotion when he was told of the sentence by his translator, his mother and a sister who were watching the trial broke into tears.
Stephens was also calm, cooling himself with a pink fan when the verdict was read out.
Czugaj's lawyer Frans Passar told AFP that before the hearing began, he and his client had already discussed the possibility of the life sentence.
"He said he was prepared but that he felt he was innocent. He said he was only a victim," Passar said. The lawyer demanded time to consider whether to appeal. The court gave him one week.
All four couriers said during the trial that Chan had threatened to kill their families if they did not comply and strap the drug to their bodies before flying home.
The verdicts on three other defendants are to be announced Wednesday.
The gang of eight men and one woman allegedly tried to smuggle a total of 11.2 kilograms of heroin to Australia.
Ban Indoneasians for sentencing their heroes to death??? Just like what they did to Singaporeans???
