TWO AUSTRALIANS SENTENCED TO DEATH

BALI, Indonesia Two Australians were sentenced Tuesday to death by firing
squad for leading a drug smuggling ring on Indonesia's resort island of
Bali, verdicts that could strain ties between the countries.

Andrew Chan, 22, and Myuran Sukumaran, 24 who masterminded the trafficking
of 18 pounds of heroin to their homeland showed little emotion as their
verdicts were read in a packed courtroom.

Four other members of the so-called "Bali Nine," all of them Australian,
have been given life sentences. The sentences for the final three were
expected Wednesday.

Indonesian anti-drugs campaigners cheered after the death sentences were
read out for Chan and, in a separate trial, for Sukumaran.

Family members in the public gallery broke down in tears.

The verdicts were broadcast live in Australia, where recent drug trials
involving citizens in Indonesia have triggered intense public interest.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard, whose government opposes capital
punishment, said the sentences were predictable given the "weight of the
evidence."

Some members of the ring were arrested at Bali's airport with heroin taped
to their bodies, while others were in a hotel room purportedly plotting
another shipment.

"I feel desperately sorry for the parents of these people, I do," Howard
told reporters in Canberra.

"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."

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, under pressure to crack down
on illegal drugs in the world's most populous Muslim nation, said he hoped
the verdicts would serve as an example.

Judge Arief Supartman said a panel of three judges at the Denpasar District
court found Chan guilty of "exporting heroin in an organized ring," and
accused him of "damaging Bali's international reputation."

He also criticized Chan for showing no remorse.

Later, judges found Sukumaran guilty of involvement in an organized drug
ring and said he, too, would face a firing squad.

"There is no reason to justify the actions of the defendant," said Judge I
Gusti Lanang Dauh.

Police escorted the two out of the courtroom in handcuffs, pushing them
past hundreds of reporters and television crews and into a prison van.

Four of the "Bali Nine" drug mules Michael Czugaj, 20; Martin Stephens,
29; Renae Lawrence, 28; and Scott rush, 20, - were sentenced to Life in
Prison in separate trials on Monday and Tuesday.