Bali police - not all arrested Australians face death

SYDNEY - Only five of nine Australians arrested in Bali over a heroin haul are likely to face charges that attract the death penalty, Indonesian police say.

The head of Bali's police anti-drugs squad has told the ABC four Australians arrested at a Bali hotel will likely face lesser charges than five others alleged to have planned and acted as couriers in the drug ring.

Squad chief Colonel Bambang Sugiarto said the nine had been divided into two groups of likely defendants, the ABC reported.

The first group included alleged drug ringleader Andrew Chan, 21, of Sydney, and four others allegedly caught at Bali's main airport with packages of heroin strapped to their bodies.

The four -- Brisbane men Michael William Czugaj and Scott Anthony Rush, both 19, Wollongong man Martin Eric Stephens, 29, and Newcastle woman Renae Lawrence, 27 -- were detained while awaiting a flight to Sydney on Sunday.

Sugiarto told the ABC Chan and the four alleged couriers would likely face Indonesia's most serious trafficking charges which could result in the death penalty, or life in jail.

Sugiarto said lesser charges were planned for the group of four detained at the hotel, the ABC reported.

Brisbane man Tach Duc Thanh Nguyen, 27, Sydney men Myuran Sukumaran, 24, Si Yi Chen, 20, and Matthew James Norman, 18, were detained at the hotel, allegedly in possession of a small amount of heroin and drug paraphernalia.

- AAP