"I think relief is a word that springs to mind," Hardie said. The NSW Director of Public Prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery said in a statement that the Chaser team had carried out an examination of the area on September 5, when police procedures had differed from those on September 6, when the stunt occurred.

"The offence is one of strict liability. Consequently, the defence of honest and reasonable mistake of fact is available to the accused," Mr Cowdery said. "Put another way, it is a defence to establish, or to raise a reasonable doubt that there existed, an honest and reasonable but mistaken belief in a set of facts which, if they had existed, would have rendered the conduct innocent. "In the cases of all 11 accused I am satisfied that on the evidence presently available the prosecution would not be able to negate, beyond reasonable doubt, the existence of an honest and reasonable (but ultimately mistaken) belief that they would not enter or be taken into the restricted area."

The matters are listed for mention in the Local Court tomorrow, when the charges will be formally withdrawn.



Mr Cowdery said: "There is no reasonable prospect of conviction and for that reason the prosecutions should not proceed."



"This is just a great relief, it's a great weight off our shoulders that's been hanging over us," Chaser cast member Chris Taylor said.



The dropping of the charges would allow the comedy team to better focus on upcoming projects.



"We'll now be in a position to block out the rest of diaries knowing a couple of us won't be serving time in a jail cell," he said. "We'd been treading water until this matter has gone away.



"We're looking at returning to the ABC in some form either by late this year or early next year."



Taylor said the Chaser crew were especially happy charges had been dropped against people hired to be part of the APEC stunt who were not regular Chaser members. "We always felt really bad for the other nine people who were either hard-working crew or just actors called in to play the role of an extra as a motorcade security guard."

Taylor did not think the dropped charges would embolden the team to try more outlandish stunts. "We were always surprised we got through the checkpoints, we thought we'd be stopped a lot earlier," he said. Eleven members of the team had faced charges of entering an APEC restricted area without justification.

The pranksters had driven a fake Canadian motorcade, flanked by bogus motorcycle and security guard escorts, through checkpoints to within metres of the hotel where US President George Bush was staying. As part of the prank, Licciardello was dressed as Osama bin Laden.

The case was adjourned several times, and there had previously been speculation the charges would be dropped. The director of ABC TV, Kim Dalton, said in a statement that the dropping of the charges proved that the stunt was a moment of great satire, not criminal behaviour. "ABC TV welcomes the fact that the charges have been dropped," he said.

"What was undeniably the greatest moment in political satire last year, which the ABC has always been very proud of, has been found to be just that - great political satire." A further paragraph at the bottom of the statement attributed to the Chaser appeared to indicate that Morrow and Licciardello counted themselves lucky.

"Today nine innocent people are feeling very relieved, and so are Chas and Julian," the statement read. The stunt won the award for best television moment at the MTV Australia Awards in Sydney at the weekend. The Chaser's Julian Morrow said he understood why the police wanted to push ahead with the prosecution but that he and the other members of the team were relieved about today's decision.

While he did no regrets about the incident, Morrow said his main concern was "the other nine people just turned up to do their jobs''.

- with Jordan Baker