Singapore - A Singapore court Monday sentenced a man who masqueraded as an informant of al-Qaeda and sent bomb hoax and terrorist-related threats to five years in jail, media reports said. Josemaria Miguel Ye Yong Qiang, 40, sent a series of e-mails threatening bomb and rocket attacks on American and European airlines, the White House, Pentagon and US embassies between September 6 and 27 last year, the online edition of Straits Times newspaper reported.

Ye, who has degrees in political studies and business administration from British universities, was found to be suffering from a major depressive disorder at the time of the offences.

He claimed bad memories of living in the West for his crimes.

Ye went to internet cafes in Singapore and in Malaysia to send hoax e-mails using a fictitious name and ending them with "Long live al-Qaeda!"

On September 13 he sent a message to the Pentagon about crashing a plane in the next few days, causing the Pentagon to beef up its security measures, the report said.

Two days earlier, he had sent a hoax message to the White House on the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 incident, claiming that al-Qaeda would be launching rocket attacks on the White House to "mark the glorious events of 11th September."

Following information from investigators in the US, police in Singapore carried out extensive inquiries which eventually led to Ye's arrest.(dpa)