HATTIESBURG(AP) — A woman who did not want her nephew to travel from Oregon to a family member’s home in Mississippi has been sentenced to five years probation for calling a Greyhound Bus Lines and saying the man was a terrorist who wanted to bring a bomb on a bus.

Joanna Jean Leisure, 38, was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Hattiesburg. She had pleaded guilty in January to federal charges of maliciously conveying false information by telephone.

She faced up to 10 years in prison. In addition to probation, U.S. District Judge Keith Starrett also placed Leisure on six months of home confinement and fined her $3,000.

Federal prosecutors said Leisure called a Greyhound office in Hattiesburg, Miss., July 16, 2007, and said 18-year-old Abdulaziz Osama AlZaaki was ‘‘planning to make a bomb to carry aboard the bus’’ leaving Weston, Ore.

Leisure hatched the plan because she did not want AlZaaki staying at a mobile home in State Line, Miss., owned by his grandmother, according to court records.

The grandmother lives in Oregon, but owns an unoccupied trailer in Mississippi. AlZaaki told investigators that Leisure ‘‘wants his grandmother’s property for herself,’’ court records said.

Before calling Greyhound, Leisure called one of her nephew’s traveling companions in an attempt to dissuade them from coming to Mississippi and warned that she would report that AlZaaki was a terrorist, according to court records.

Prosecutors said Leisure then allegedly called again and left a threatening message on the woman’s voicemail.

Prosecutors said Leisure then allegedly called the bus line with information on the fictitious terrorist plot. Leisure did not give her name, but her telephone number showed up on Greyhound’s caller identification.

Prosecutors said federal, state and local law enforcement officials were waiting when the bus arrived. Neither AlZaaki nor his companions were carrying explosive materials.



AP-CS-04-30-08 1857EDT