The court today erupted with shouts from the public gallery as its three-judge panel announced its verdict of "hukuman mati" or death penalty against Chan - a scene repeated just as dramatically when Sukumaran's fate was announced later in a separate hearing. Both men appeared to take the news calmly. Sukumaran, 24 of Sydney, was ordered to stand and blinked as his verdict was read out. Chan shook hands with his lawyers briefly before being led out by police from the packed courtroom and through a scrum of reporters and cameramen.
Chan and Sukumaran are the first drug offenders to be condemned to die by courts in Bali, an island seemingly determined to stamp out its reputation as an Asian drug transit centre. The trial's Chief Judge Arief Supartman read a handwritten judgment from the bench, saying Chan had been proven guilty of "exporting heroin in an organised ring and possessing a prohibited class one narcotic".
He said Chan had "damaged Bali's international reputation" and he castigated the 22-year-old Sydney man for not cooperating with Indonesian authorities and refusing to answer questions during his trial. "The defendant did not show any remorse during his trial and was evasive," the judge said. "There are no grounds for leniency." Immediately after the verdict was pronounced, uproar erupted with a group of anti-drugs campaigners cheering in the courtroom.
"Well done chief judge," said some, while others shouted out "Death!"
Chan was later locked in a holding cell at the rear of the court where he smoked a cigarette as he talked through the bars with his brother Michael. A smiling Chan also used the moments to tell Sukumaran in the cell that he had just been put on death row. The two then shared a drink before Sukumaran was led away to hear his fate.
Judge I Gusti Lanang Dauh said Sukumaran had been "obstructive" through the trial process and at no time had expressed any sense of guilt. Chan's and Sukumaran's lawyer Rifan Mohamad said he was bitter and surprised by the verdicts. He said he would advise both his clients to appeal. "Of course we are very disappointed."
Rifan said the judges had ignored crucial evidence and hinted he believed the trial had been unfair. An Australian Embassy spokeswoman said Australia would make representations for clemency for any of the nine handed the death penalty.
Prime Minister John Howard reacted to today's death sentences by begging young Australians to stay away from drugs in Asia, saying he had no power to change tough anti-narcotic laws in other countries. ``Can I just say to every young Australian, please take notice of this, I even beg them not to take the terrible risks that these young people have done, their lives destroyed in the case of two people,'' he told reporters. The PM also defended the role the Australian Federal Police played in the capture of the Bali Nine by tipping off Indonesian authorities.
Appeals must be filed with the Bali High Court within a week. Further appeals could be made later to the Supreme Court and ultimately Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono - himself an anti-drugs campaigner - could commute the death sentences.
An expert in international law said if the appeal process got bogged down in technicalities, Chan and Sukumaran could stay on Indonesia's death row for years. Alternatively, things might move ominously fast. ``We could be looking at as little as two to three months. There is a record of executions in Indonesia being carried out expeditiously,'' said University of Sydney Professor Donald Rothwell.
Life sentences for Czugai and Stephens Before Chan was sentenced, another of the nine, 20-year-old Michael Czugaj of Brisbane, received a life sentence, the same punishment as handed down to fellow drug mules Renae Lawrence and Scott Rush yesterday.
Czugaj was arrested with heroin strapped to his body at Bali airport. Martin Stephens, 29, of Wollongong man was also sentenced to life in jail for trying to smuggle 2.9kg of heroin. Today's verdict hearings got underway after chaotic scenes.
Sukumaran looked extremely agitated as he was jostled in the melee. At one point he threw a water bottle at one news crew as he moved through the throng.
In a holding cell he punched a camera that hit the face of its cameraman through the bars of a holding cell at the rear of the court. A media frenzy erupted when Chan and Czugaj were escorted by police from a holding cell to two courtrooms. At one stage, Chan was jostled and fell, almost toppling into a drainage ditch at the side of the building.
His guards held him up and pushed him through a pack of reporters and cameramen and then through a side door. Nearby a group of Indonesian anti-drugs activists chanted: ``Death! Death!''.
AAP
Denpasar airport, where the nine were arrested
The ringleaders of the so-called Bali Nine were today sentenced to death by a Denpasar court. Andrew Chan received the news via translators at about 3:45 p.m. AEDT, and Myuran Sukumaran was sentenced at about 4:50 p.m. AEDT. The two were charged with attempting to smuggle 8.3 kg of heroin from Bali to Australia.

The Australian Federal Police have been criticised for allowing the Bali Nine to travel to Indonesia, where it was known they could face the death penalty. Yesterday two other drug mules, Renae Lawrence and Scott Rush, were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Prosecutors asked for the death penalty for both men. Chan was alleged to be the mastermind of the operation, and Myuran was alleged to be an enforcer. Chan, who claimed to have rediscovered his Christian faith, prayed for divine intervention prior to the sentence being handed down. Outside the court Indonesian protesters shouted "Death! Death!". Chan fell over after jostling with a media scrum,  and Sukumaran threw a bottle of water at the media.

Donald Rothwell, a Professor of International Law at the University of Sydney, has said that, unlike countries such as Singapore, it may not be long before the two are executed.

"The Indonesian judicial system is one in which death sentences are often carried out very quickly," he said.

"So unlike the situation of Van Nguyen in Singapore, where an appeal process and a clemency process played out over quite some time, this may not be the situation in Bali."

Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer told parliament today that he had made a direct request to the Indonesian government that the death penalty not be imposed. "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.

In Bali the death sentence is carried out by firing squad.