It's D-Day for the 8 men convicted of conspiracy to murder the Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama as High Court Judge Justice Paul Madigan will sentence them at 3:30pm today.

After the mitigation yesterday, Justice Madigan stressed that he will seriously consider the degree of participation of each of the 8 men when considering the appropriate sentences to be handed down.

While making submissions on the sentence, DPP Lawyer David Toganivalu highlighted 2 previous cases on conspiracy to murder charges and informed the court that in a case in Australia, 2 conspirators were sentenced to 12 years imprisonment while in another case in Australia, 2 men were sentenced to 9 and 12 years imprisonment for a similar offence.

Toganivalu stressed to Judge Madigan that the sentences must be a deterrent to the 8 men and to others who may be thinking of committing such an act.

Justice Madigan questioned Toganivalu on whether he thought there are others who may try such a thing.

He replied that there may be like minded people in our struggling communities who must be deterred from trying to carry out such a crime.

Meanwhile, Justice Madigan stated in court yesterday that it is profoundly sad that Sivaniolo Naulago has now lost everything after being found guilty of conspiracy to murder the Prime Minister.

Judge Madigan also stated during questions with the defence counsels that it would have been chaos for Fiji if the plan had been carried out.

While mitigating on behalf of Naulago, Lawyer Mehboob Raza highlighted Naulago=s impeccable career, being the first from his village to acquire a University degree and working in his chosen profession around the world.

Raza also stressed that Naulago's only contact with Ballu Khan was a result of a successful application to work in his field of profession.

Raza stressed that his degree of participation be given weight as he was only a driver to cart people to the meetings and that no print outs were ever produced from the laptop where Naulago was said to have kept details of the plot.

Raza said it is a classic case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Raza said Naulago committed an offence which can be described as an offense in theory as no weapons were ever found which would have allowed the plot to be carried out.

Defence counsel of Eperama Waqatairewa, Iqbal Khan urged the court to consider the degree of participation which he stressed involved one of his jobs for Ballu Khan, which was to prepare grog full time and because of that he could not refuse to drink grog or leave until the session had finished.

Khan said it's a classic case where the judge can tamper justice with mercy because of the evidence at hand.

He highlighted that Waqatairewa is 40 years old and lives with his two brothers and sisters.

Khan also stressed that Kaminieli Vosavere's involvement was just one comment that he made at one of the meetings and asked the court for leniency towards him when considering sentencing.

Khan stressed that Pauliasi Namulo is 39 years old and his only crime was drinking grog at Khan's place and justice of mercy should be considered by the court in imposing sentence.

In mitigation, all 8 men asked the court to show mercy and a second chance and pleaded for a non-custodial sentence.

After considering all the mitigating factors, the character references and submissions from all counsels, Justice Madigan will sentence the 8 men at 3:30 this afternoon.