An unemployed college graduate in Zhejiang Province now faces a five-year prison sentence after attempting to blackmail the local government. Liang Yanhui had tried to extort 500,000 yuan (US$64,637) from city authorities to allegedly stop him going on a killing spree.

 

Liang, 22, a native of Jiangxi Province, was found guilty of trying to blackmail the government of Rui'an City, in Zhejiang Province.

 

The court was told that Liang traveled to Rui'an to find work after graduating from a Jiangxi college last year, but failed to secure a job after months of searching. The adage "crime doesn't pay" would serve as a nice morality lesson to underscore Liang's bungled approach to a life of crime.  

 

The hapless schemer's path to prison began in early November last year when he wrote a letter to the mayor of Rui'an, claiming that he was a migrant worker in the city and demanding compensation of 500,000 yuan for having suffered discrimination from the local inhabitants. Just quite why he thought the government should be responsible for such mockery remains unclear but his threat to go on a murderous rampage across the city caught the authorities' attention.

 

Further demonstrating his ignorance of the criminal psyche, Liang then bombarded a policeman surnamed Yang with text messages, reiterating his threats and asking Yang to relay these to Party authorities in Rui'an, the court was told.

 

One imagines Liang's surprise that his masterful plan had been foiled as he was carried away by police on December 26, 2006. It also came to light that Liang's extortion hobby had spread to the People's Hospital of Rui'an from which he attempted to get 100,000 yuan (US$12,927). He threatened to blow it up after claiming one of his relatives had died there due to inefficient medical treatment. A lack of evidence eventually led to this charge being dropped.

  

(Xinhua News Agency March 26, 2007)