Nine Australians face further interrogation in Bali

CANBERRA - Nine Australians will face further interrogation in Bali today after being accused of trying to smuggle more than 11kg of heroin out of Indonesia.

Family members of the nine were expected to start arriving in Indonesia today, after four of the accused were detained at Bali airport on Sunday, allegedly with heroin strapped to their bodies.

A fifth person was also arrested at the airport and later four others were taken into custody during a hotel raid where sandwich-sized blocks of heroin were allegedly found.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer today said he was shocked by the arrests.

Australian Federal Police (AFP) said they could not allow the alleged drug runners to make it back to Australia with the haul just to avoid a possible death sentence in Indonesia.

The nine could face a firing squad if convicted of drug smuggling under Indonesian law. As yet no charges have been be laid.

The Australian newspaper today named the alleged mastermind of the group as Andrew Chan, 21, of Enfield in Sydney.

Mr Chan was pulled off a Sydney bound Australian Airlines flight at Bali's main airport in Denpasar.

"What ever happened to Schapelle Corby happened to me. They are convicting me of something I didn't do," he told reporters in Bali.

The newspaper also named the four who allegedly had heroin strapped to their bodies as Michael William Czugaj and Scott Anthony Rush, both 19 from Brisbane, Martin Eric Stephen, 29, from Towradgi near Wollongong, south of Sydney, and Renae Lawrence, 27, from Wallsend in Newcastle.

The Australian newspaper named the other four arrested in the hotel raid as Tach Duc Thanh Nguyen, 27, from Brisbane, Myuran Sukumaran, 24, from Auburn in Sydney, Si Yi Chen, 20, from Doonside in Sydney, and Matthew James Norman, 18, from Quakers Hill in Sydney.

Mr Downer said the AFP could not allow the group to return to Australia before arresting them because the alleged offences were committed in Indonesia, and the Indonesian police had to be involved.

"For nine people to be arrested -- certainly in my nine years as the foreign minister there has never been a situation like that before," he told the Nine Network.

"People have to know though that trafficking in heroin and trafficking in drugs brings the death penalty in many countries, particularly in Asia. If people don't understand that, they certainly will now."

AFP border and international network national manager Mike Phelan said Australian agents had been gathering information about the group for about 10 weeks and handed it to Indonesian police two weeks ago.

But he said it was not up to Australia to decide where the group was arrested.

"I know that you were saying that should we let the drugs come here -- that's not a decision for us," he told the Seven Network.

"When we're involved in international co-operation, these offences have occurred in another jurisdiction and it's very much the domain of the law enforcement authorities in that jurisdiction as to what action they take."

Mr Downer said Australia would always appeal for clemency in any situation where an Australian faced the death penalty.

- AAP