Sydney  - An Australian civil libertarian who has spent over a year in jail for refusing to register her car Friday lost a Supreme Court appeal against a sentence she argues runs contrary to "Bible-codified common law."

Losalina Rainima will be released on Sunday but the likelihood is that she will again offend and be back behind bars because of her view that "all living things are given graces - the birds fly, the fish swim, the kangaroo hops - and I've been given the graces to drive."

Rainima is one of 3,000 members of the United People Movement Against Road Taxes (UPMART), which claims to protect human rights through "Bible-codified common law."

Twenty other UPMART members have spent time in jail - some for driving vehicles bearing licence plates they have fashioned themselves.

"The strength of her belief has cost her dearly," the presiding judge said, reminding Rainima she was disqualified from driving until 2023.

Malcolm McClure, an UPMART spokesman, described Rainima as "one of those rare individuals who is prepared to 'do what it takes' to claim and live her rights as a sovereign human being." (dpa)