An Indonesian salesman who sent two hoax SMS bomb threats while in Malaysia's northern Penang state was yesterday sentenced to 25 months in jail, a report said.

The 23-year-old from the Indonesian town of Medan, named Kurniawan, received two jail sentences of 12 and 13 months and was fined RM5,000 (US$1,326 ) for the hoax, which sparked a security scare in Penang, the official Bernama news agency said.

He had previously admitted sending two SMS threats to police in August, saying bombs would explode at an airport and a shopping complex in Penang.

Bernama said that one message read: "Hello, I'm one of Al-Qaeda member. I want to tell you about Libenny. He is on his way to the Penang International Airport. He wants to put a bomb there and then hijack the Lion Airlines. I don't want see any incident in Malaysia. I love Malaysia".

Regretted actions

In another SMS to the police, he said bombs had been placed at a Penang shopping complex and two other locations in the city.

A lawyer for Kurniawan said his client regretted his actions and did not realise how serious they were.

Malaysia has started a campaign to register millions of pre-paid mobile phone subscribers to prevent the untraceable handsets being used to send threatening or slanderous messages.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has also called on Malaysians to stop rumour-mongering through SMS and lambasted people for abusing the technology.