One of her lawyers, Erwin Siregar, who will make a statement after visiting Connor at Kerobokan jail on Thursday, told Fairfax Media that she was not guilty and therefore should appeal.

"But ultimately it is up to Sara to decide. We can only recommend, it is not up to us."

Connor, who insists she is innocent, was jailed for four years in the Denpasar District Court on Monday over the fatal group assault of officer Wayan Sudarsa at Legian beach on August 17 last year.

Her boyfriend, David Taylor, who confessed to bashing Mr Sudarsa in self-defence, has already indicated he will not appeal his six-year sentence for the same offence.

Australian barrister Peter Strain, a family friend who has assisted the Connor family since her arrest in August last year, said there were significant risks in her appealing.

"Appealing a reasonably light sentence can carry serious risks of that light sentence being increased and I wouldn't think in those circumstances that she would appeal," Mr Strain said.

"I'm not advising her either way [but] my view is there are significant dangers, which she knows about."

Professor Tim Lindsey, the director of Melbourne University's Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society, said it would be "highly ill-advised" for Connor to appeal.

"It would be potentially a very serious mistake because there is plenty of evidence in Indonesia of cases involving foreigners who appeal and end up with a harsher sentence."

Heroin smugglers Scott Rush, Si Yi Chen, Matthew Norman and Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, part of the Bali nine, had their sentences increased to the death penalty on appeal to the Supreme Court.

And convicted cannabis smuggler Schapelle Corby had her 15-year sentence increased to the original 20-year term when it was appealed in the Supreme Court.

Professor Lindsey said the trial judges had "completely rejected" Connor's defence that she had been trying to break up a fight between the late police officer, Wayan Sudarsa, and her boyfriend David Taylor, and found she had participated in the assault.

They also completely rejected her claim she had cut up the officer's identity cards to protect him from identity theft, saying it instead indicated her guilt.

"There is a disparity between the findings of the court, which were very damaging for Sara, and the relatively light penalty, which may not survive an appeal," he said.

Professor Lindsey said many people didn't understand that under the law it didn't really matter that Connor had played a lesser role in the assault of Mr Sudarsa than that of her boyfriend.

"In a violent attack by two or more people, all are treated as joint perpetrators," he said. "Given it was quite brutal and he was a serving police officer on duty, it is highly unlikely she would be given a lighter sentence.

"It would be open for judges to impose a much higher sentence."

However Mr Siregar said: "We are not talking about the risk of appealing. As we said after the sentencing, we still believe that Sara should appeal."

The prosecution also has seven days from the sentencing to decide whether to appeal. It is standard operating procedure for them to do so if the sentence is less than two-thirds of that requested by prosecutors.

This is true in Connor's case, as her four-year jail term was only half that requested by prosecutors.

However prosecutor Agung Jayalantara said a decision had not yet been made. "Standard operating procedure is just a guideline, it's not a must," he said.

He said the prosecutors would consider the verdict and sentence to determine if there was a sense of fairness.

Meanwhile, Mr Strain said Connor's ex-husband, Anthony "Twig" Connor would at some stage take their two sons, aged 9 and 11, to visit their mother in Bali.

He said he had been with the boys when the verdict was delivered.

"The boys were very stoic and mature. It is a real credit to Twig who has spent the past seven months keeping them out of the media and giving them normal lives."

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