3 More Aussies Sentenced In Bali

Three Australians were sentenced to life imprisonment on Wednesday for drug smuggling on Indonesia's Bali island, the final verdicts in a series of trials involving six compatriots on the same charges.

Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, 23, Si Yi Chen, 20, and Matthew Norman, 19, showed no emotion as judges at the Denpasar District Court found them "legally and convincingly" guilty of attempting to smuggle about 18 pounds of heroin from Bali to their homeland last April.

The three, who were tried together, were the last members of the so-called "Bali Nine" to be sentenced.

On Tuesday, the gang's two ringleaders were sentenced to death by firing squad - verdicts that could cause tensions between Indonesia and Australia if they are carried out.

The other four members also received life imprisonment.

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.

All nine have the right to appeal, a process that could take years, or seek a presidential pardon, which would require an admission of guilt.

Canberra routinely pleads that death sentences passed on its citizens by foreign courts be commuted to time in prison, but it is unlikely to take any steps until the legal process is complete.

There have been several drug cases involving Australians overseas in recent months.

Nguyen Tuong Van was executed in Singapore in December after he was found guilty of heroin smuggling.

Bali courts sentenced lingerie model Michelle Leslie to three months in jail for using drugs in November, and former beautician Schapelle Corby got 20 years in May for smuggling marijuana onto the island.

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

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