By Mark Forbes, Neil McMahon and Denpasar
DEATH sentences have been imposed on the ringleaders of the Bali nine, initiating a diplomatic crisis for Australia and Indonesia.
Cheers from local anti-drug campaigners rang through the Denpasar District Court when Judge Arief Supratman announced that Andrew Chan, 22, deserved no mercy after organising the heroin smuggling. Chan shrugged his shoulders and was led away.
Soon it was the turn of Myuran Sukumaran. He too was told he was sentenced to death.
The judges said the pair would have damaged a generation by exporting 8000 hits of heroin, had been evasive and sullied Bali's reputation. There were no grounds for leniency.
Two more of the Bali nine couriers, Martin Stephens and Michael Czugaj, received life sentences yesterday.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer revealed after the verdicts that from December the Australian Government had pleaded that death sentences not be sought. But they were, and the judges delivered them.
There was no mercy — and there is little hope. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ruled out pardons for drug offenders. As people sentenced to death, Chan and Sukumaran are likely to be excluded from any extradition treaty with Indonesia. Their only hope of escaping a firing squad appears to be a reduction of sentence on appeal.
If further appeals and pleas for presidential pardons are unsuccessful, they will be shot.
Prime Minister John Howard said there was an appeal process and the Government would make appropriate representations, but he did not want to raise expectations. "We are against the death penalty," he said. "We will make, in an appropriate way, at the appropriate time, representations."
An Australian embassy spokeswoman said officials would seek clemency for Chan and Sukumaran once their appeal processes were exhausted.
Mr Howard said the sentences were a warning to all Australians. "I feel desperately sorry for the parents of these people. All of us as parents would feel that way. But the warnings have been there for decades, and how on earth any young Australian can be so stupid as to take the risk is completely beyond me."
He defended the federal police, who provided information that led to the arrests of the Bali nine. Speaking of foreign countries, he said: "They hate drugs, they have severe penalties and everybody knows that and it's no good people blaming the police or blaming others."
Australian Federal Police chief Mick Keelty said yesterday: "For anyone to say the AFP has blood on their hands, I can understand the emotion of the matter, but we have done our job."
Families of the nine have attacked the Government over the Australian Federal Police turning them in to Indonesian authorities, rather than arresting them on their return to Australia.
Lawyers for the condemned pair said the verdicts were driven by political pressure. They indicated they would appeal. The trials were unfair, allowing insufficient time for the defence case and ignoring key evidence, lawyer Mohamad Rifan said.
Mr Downer told Parliament that he wrote to Indonesia's Attorney-General in December requesting that he direct prosecutors not to seek death penalties against the Bali nine. Attorney-General Philip Ruddock and Justice Minister Chris Ellison made similar pleas.
The execution of drug trafficker Nguyen Tuong Van in Singapore provoked a bitter row with Australia this year, with personal pleas for mercy from Mr Howard going unheeded.
Negotiations for a prisoner transfer agreement between Australia and Indonesia will be accelerated, raising the prospect that some of the nine will be returned home.
In court, Judge Supratman referred to a letter from the Australian Federal Police nominating Chan as the ringleader of the scheme. Claims that four other defendants were forced to be drug mules by Chan's threats to kill their families were dismissed.
"The defendant's actions sullied Bali's reputation as a paradise island," Judge Supratman said. "The defendant showed no remorse during the trial. He was evasive. There is no reason to evade responsibility for his actions."
Judge Gusti Lanang Dauh said Sukumaran and Chan "played very important and significant roles. They arranged to take the drugs from Bali to Australia. Chan and the defendant (Sukumaran) provided the funds, transportation and accommodation."
There was no evidence to prove his innocence and no reason Sukumaran should escape the death sentence, Judge Dauh said. "The defendant showed no remorse over his actions. When the prosecution requested the death penalty, the defendant showed no reaction whatsoever."
The judges dismissed claims by Czugaj and Stephens that they acted under duress. Czugaj's judge, Putu Widnya, said: "It is stated you were under threat. You could have reported the threat, but chose not to.
"What is weighing down your sentence is the bad image of Bali. What's lightening it is that you have been courteous, you have been co-operative and that you have rejected your deeds."
Stephens' judge echoed the same factors. Lawyers for both said they were considering appeals.
The remaining three members of the Bali nine will hear their verdicts today.
With BRENDAN NICHOLSON