Bali nine mastermind sentenced to death

A mastermind of the Bali nine heroin smuggling operation, Andrew Chan, has been found guilty and sentenced to death by an Indonesian court.

Chan, 22, from Sydney, was accused along with 24-year-old Myuran Sukumaran of having provided the money, the airline tickets and the hotels to the drug mules.

Judge Arief Supratman, reading out the verdict, said Chan was "guilty of illegally exporting first-class narcotics in an organised way".

It is the first time the Denpasar District Court has handed down the death sentence for drug trafficking.

The sentence was in line with prosecutors' recommendations.

The defendant, he added, was also "the person who made the travel arrangements for several people from and to Australia".

"According to the teachings of various religions, the death penalty can be justified," Mr Supratman said.

Activists from an Indonesian anti-narcotics group inside the courtroom shouted "Hooray! Long live the judges!" when the verdict was read.

'No mitigating factors'

Dressed in a white shirt and dark pants, Chan accepted the sentence quietly and shared a brief exchange with his lawyer before being led away.

The head judge said Chan's refusal to cooperate throughout the investigation was taken into account.

"There are no mitigating factors. His statements throughout the trial were convoluted and he did not own up to his actions," Mr Supratman told the court.

His lawyer, Mohammad Rifan, said he was shocked at the decision and is yet to discuss the option of an appeal with Chan.

Mule gets life

In a separate judgement, Michael Czugaj, from Brisbane, has been found guilty of attempting to smuggle heroin from Bali to Australia and sentenced to life imprisonment by a Bali court.

Judge Putu Wignya told the court Czugaj was guilty of exporting first class narcotics.

The sentence was recommended by the prosecutors.

He is the third Bali nine courier to receive a life sentence.

Indonesian prosecutors are also seeking the death penalty for Sukumaran, who is also accused of masterminding an attempt to smuggle more than eight kilograms of heroin from Bali to Australia.

It is judgement day too for Martin Stephens another of the alleged drug couriers.

Prosecutors are seeking a life sentence in his case.

Death penalty opposition

Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer has told Parliament he has written to the Indonesian Government asking that the death sentence not be imposed on the Bali nine.

Mr Downer says Australia has a long-standing policy of opposing the death penalty.

"On the 18th of December last year, I wrote to the Indonesian Attorney-General reminding him that the Australian Government was opposed to the death sentence and we didn't want to see, in the context of the Bali nine, any of the Australians sentenced to death," he said.

Appeals planned

Lawyers for two other Australians given life imprisonment sentences yesterday for heroin trafficking have indicated they will appeal.

Renae Lawrence's sentence was a surprise move, as the prosecutors had asked for leniency and 20 years in jail for the 28-year-old woman from Newcastle.

Scott Rush, from Brisbane, received the life sentence prosecutors had asked for.

In both cases, the judge in Denpasar District Court said there was no evidence that 20-year-old Rush and Lawrence were forced to carry the drugs because of threats made to their families' lives.

The remaining three members of the Bali nine will have their verdicts handed down on Wednesday.

Sydneysiders Matthew Norman and Si Yi Chen and Tan Van Nguyen from Brisbane are all under the age of 24 and face the prospect of spending the rest of their lives in an Indonesian prison.

-ABC/AFP/Reuters