PUTRAJAYA - Two former Malaysian soldiers and an Indonesian national were jailed for promoting terrorism, including plotting to kidnap then Prime Minister Najib Razak and other Cabinet ministers, Bernama news agency reported.

The two Malaysians, Nor Azmi Jailani and Mohd Yusri Mohamed Yusof, both 32 years old, were each jailed for eight years.

Ali Saifuddin, 31, a technician from Indonesia with Malaysian permanent resident status, was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment.

They were found guilty by a three-member panel of judges, with the sentences to run from their date of arrest in April 2015, Bernama reported.

The three men, according to the evidence, participated in discussions with a son of a former militant of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group to kidnap four former ministers including Najib, in exchange for those arrested under a Malaysian security law.

The names of other former ministers who were possible kidnap victims were former deputy premier Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, former defence minister Hishammuddin Hussein and former youth minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

Bernama reported that Abu Daud Murad Halimmuddin, the son of a former militant, is serving a 12-year jail sentence for conspiring to promote terrorism, while his father, Murad Halimmuddin Hassan, was jailed for 18 years.

It has been reported that Murad had died of heart complications in 2017.