A 50-year-old man was sent to trial at the Brisbane's Supreme Court after helping his 76-year-old friend commit suicide. Merin Nielson, received a guilty verdict for the crime..

Frank Ward, the victim, was discovered dead inside his Clayfield unit on June 20, 2009. It appeared that he had taken a high dose of a drug typically used to euthanize animals. The drug was said to be unavailable in Australia.

Nielsen did a short trip to Mexico to get the deadly drug for Mr. Ward's suicidal attempt.

It took almost three days for the judges to decide he's guilty of the crime. The decision was released Wednesday afternoon.

Nielsen's lawyer, Mark Green, told Justice Jean Dalton that his client only helped his friend, who is sick and elderly. The victim considered Nielsen to be his surrogate son, and had known Mr. Ward for over 30 years.

Justice Dalton, however, explained that Nielsen could have assisted his friend in some other ways such as encouraging him to consult the doctor.

Nielsen stood firm denying his involvement with Mr. Ward's death after the incident. Justice Dalton said that what he did is something immoral for not having the willingness to face the consequences, instead protects himself by not telling the truth.

Nielsen was taken into custody Wednesday afternoon, and was sentenced today at 9 a.m. Philip Nitschke, a right-to-die campaign promoter, felt terrible about the incident because there had been a bit of uncertainty that the victim had really wanted to kill himself.

Dr. Nitschke hoped that the sentence was influenced much by sympathy and commonsense. He further hoped Merin Nielsen wasn't granted a custodial sentence.