A court in Indonesia has acquitted two of the three police officers charged with negligence over their order to use tear gas as a crowd control measure that led to a deadly crush at a soccer match last October.

Police fired tear gas after fans of the defeated home team stormed the pitch in Malang, East Java, sparking a panicked stampede which left 135 people dead and more than 600 others injured.

A government fact-finding team concluded that the tear gas was the main cause of the tragedy. The three officers were charged with negligence causing death and bodily harm for ordering the tear gas use.

The court on Thursday sentenced one officer, who was the head of the province's mobile brigade unit at the time, to 18 months in prison.

But the court cleared the other two defendants. It said one of the them had not ordered the firing of tear gas, while the tear gas use ordered by the other officer had been directed at the center of the pitch and did not reach any spectators.

The ruling was a blow to the relatives of the victims who want to see those responsible for the tragedy held accountable.