China jails "Afghan soldier" for blackmail- media

BEIJING, Feb 27 (Reuters) A Beijing court has sentenced a Chinese man to four years in jail for claiming to be an Afghan soldier and trying to blackmail supermarkets, Chinese media said today.

Wang Yongjian, 30, from the eastern province of Shandong, sent 16 threatening letters to large Beijing supermarkets demanding in total more than 1 million yuan to stop him poisoning their products, the Beijing Youth Daily said.

''We are Afghan soldiers who need money to go home and fight for our country,'' it quoted one of the letters as saying.

''Please bury 200,000 yuan in a hole under the advertising billboard or we will inject poison into the food you are selling and ruin your market.'' The supermarkets handed the letters to the police, the newspaper said.

The report did not say how Wang was arrested nor why he had chosen to pretend to be from Afghanistan.

REUTERS BDP ND0944