An Indian court has sentenced three men to death for treason over an attack on the national parliament which nearly triggered a war with nuclear rival Pakistan.
A lawyer for the three, who included a college lecturer in Arabic, said an appeal would be filed in a higher court within a month.
Death sentences, which are carried out by hanging, are rare in India.
"I award the death sentence to three persons, being responsible for the murder of nine persons," Judge S.N. Dhingra told the New Delhi court today.
Five gunmen stormed India's parliament complex on December 13 last year and killed nine people before they were themselves shot dead.
The three men, who were accused of helping the gunmen prepare for the raid, were calm and composed as the judge read out the sentence in a packed courtroom surrounded by armed policemen. The wife of one of the three, herself convicted of not disclosing a criminal conspiracy, was sentenced to five years jail.
All four had denied the charges.
India blamed Pakistan for the attack -- a charge Pakistan denied -- and the neighbours mobilised their armies along the border.
The court convicted the four on Monday on charges including attempting to kill the prime minister, the interior minister and lawmakers.
India said the attack aimed to wipe out its entire political leadership and cause national chaos. Police say two of those found guilty are members of the Pakistan-based guerrilla group Jaish-e-Mohammad fighting Indian rule in disputed Kashmir.
The two, Mohammad Afzal and Shaukat Hussain, were picked up by police in Srinagar, summer capital of India's Jammu and Kashmir state, two days after the attack. Hussain's wife, Navjot Sandhu, and the lecturer, Abdul Rehman Geelani, were arrested in New Delhi the same day.
"We are appealing," defence counsel Nitya Ramakrishnan said.
Activists of the militant Hindu group Shiv Sena, celebrated the decision by setting off firecrackers outside the courtroom.