Cloning scientist indicted

The former knucklehead winner Hwang Woo-Suk is back in the news.

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korean prosecutors indicted disgraced cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk Friday on charges of fraud, embezzlement and bioethics violations in a scandal over faked stem cell research that shook the scientific community.

Five members of Hwang's research team were indicted on lesser charges, prosecution official Lee In-kyu said in a nationally televised news conference.

Hwang was hailed worldwide as a stem cell pioneer and treated as a national hero until investigations late last year showed that he had fabricated key data, which had given hope for breakthrough treatments to such diseases such as Alzheimer's.

Hwang was charged fraud for accepting $2 million in private donations based on the outcome of the falsified research and for allegedly embezzling nearly $900,000 in private and government research funds, Lee said. He also allegedly paid money to receive human eggs for research, a violation of the country's bioethics law.

Hwang was unreachable for comment Friday.

Of the researchers, three were charged with fraud, one with tampering with research samples and one with bioethics violations. Lee said none of the six would be detained, but did not elaborate.

Don't expect much in the way of a sentence for Hwang. He is a national embarassment to the ROK but much worse criminals have gotten off with virtual wrist slaps. Take for instance this businessman. If he only got 10.5 years for allowing 500 people to die, what do you expect Hwang to get?

Corruption is rampant in South Korea. Regrettably I think its infected their justice system also.

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