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Three men on trial over milk poisoning Three people who tried to extort money from a famous milk producer by contaminating its products with poison have gone on trial in Central China's Hebei Province. Qian Junbao, Lu Hua and Liu Xu first tried to get money from the Mengniu Dairy Industry Corp by sending them threatening letters. Health scare When they failed to get any money from the company, they set about making their actions public, which led to a widespread health scare. The verdict in the case, being heard at the Xiangfan Intermediate People's Court in Hebei Province, is expected to be meted out in several days. Along with Lu and Liu, Qian, a farmer from Zaoyang in Hubei, sent the Mengniu group five terror letters by e-mail in February and March last year, asking for 200,000 yuan (US$24,000). They also threatened to inject poison into milk produced by the company if they did not get the money. Receiving no response from Mengniu, Qian then bought a number of toxic substances, such as formaldehyde, methanol and ethanol, and injected them into batches of Mengniu milk they bought in cities of Wuhan, Changsha and Foshan. Contaminated milk They then managed to distribute the comtaminated milk to supermarkets and shopping centres in the cities. After once again failing to get any money from the company, Qian then told the authorities and several news agencies of what they had done, even listing the names of the shops they had been sent the milk to. Shortly afterwards, several consumers in Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province, and Foshan, a city in South China's Guangdong Province, fell ill with symptoms such as headache and vomiting. Tests showed the milk had been contaminated with poison The case caused a high degree of concern among the public and the country's top leaders, including Premier Wen Jiaobao. It also put the Ministry of Public Security on alert. In March last year, the Ministry of Public Security convened a special meeting in Wuhan, which was attended by criminal investigation departments from the city and from other parts of the country. They made this kind of poisoning incidents a special case for intense investigation. In May, Qian Junbo and his accomplices were arrested by the Department of Criminal Investigation under the Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Public Security on charges of extortion and poisoning. (China Daily 04/13/2005 page3) |
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