John, what sh*ts me about this whole exercise, is that trafficking in our fauna is regarded as a hanging offence for anyone else.
Other smugglers that have been caught, have been regularly fined $10,000 or $20,000, and even jailed.
Japanese Lizard Smugglers caught - Perth Now
http://www.customs.gov.au/webdata/re...fact_sheet.pdf
"The maximum penalty for illegal importing or exporting wildlife
under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation
Act 1999 is A$100,000 and/or 10 years jail."
However, it's pretty obvious someone pretty high-up stepped in here, and decided that throwing a couple of crooked Indo pilots into remand, or even putting them in the dock, could turn the Indo reaction to the whole spying episode, into something equating to a nuclear detonation.
It stinks, but I guess someone decided it wasn't worth the risk.