Three mail office employees at the South China University of Technology were recently arrested for selling mail addressed to university students and staff.

The three employees, two men and a woman, had sold about 5,000 letters as waste to a nearby salvage station for 75 yuan (US$9.15) from June to October this year, Tuesday's Guangzhou Daily reported.

A teacher surnamed Zhang reported the matter to police on October 20. Several months ago she found her letters were often lost. Later, she accidentally discovered that mailroom staff delivered five to six bags of mail each week to a salvage station around the corner. To her surprise, the letters were all unopened, and addressed to students and staff at the university.

Police investigations showed that the three people had sold the mail for 0.7 yuan per kg. The three were charged with invading freedom of correspondence.

(Shenzhen Daily December 9, 2004)