Jakarta – An Indonesian court on Wednesday sentenced an army corporal and a former soldier to life in jail for a devastating blast at the stock exchange that killed 15 people. Prosecutors had demanded death for ex-sergeant Irwan Ilyas and Corporal Ibrahim Hasan. Both at one stage escaped authorities, but Ilyas was recaptured and Hasan remains on the run.

"Both were soldiers who knew what such an explosion can do ... so they took lives on purpose," Judge Purwono told the South Jakarta court. Both had pleaded not guilty to possessing and using explosives, causing death and damage. "Maybe this is the best sentence I can get," Ilyas told reporters after the sentence. But his lawyer told the court he would appeal. Hasan was also sentenced in absentia on Monday to eight years in jail over a grenade attack on the Malaysian embassy last year.

The court on Monday sentenced two other men to 20 years in jail over the bombing last September, one of a series of attacks that undermined security in the crisis-racked capital. One of those two also remains on the run. All have denied any wrongdoing and say they have been framed.

The motive for the stock exchange bombing, the bloodiest single bomb attack in the capital in years, remains unclear. Prosecutors have said only that the men wanted to destabilise the already troubled country.

Police this month accused disgraced former President Suharto's fugitive youngest son, Hutomo Mandala Putra, better known as Tommy, of being behind some of the bombings. They didn't say which bombs he was linked to, but former President Abdurrahman Wahid publicly blamed Tommy for the stock exchange blast. Tommy has been on the run since November after a court sentenced him to 18 months' jail for graft over a land scam.

New President Megawati Sukarnoputri has vowed to stamp out the violence that has stoked instability and scared off foreign investors since the Asian financial crisis unleashed a wave of social and political violence in 1997. But she has not outlined how she will do it.