Mr. Hwang Woo-suk was formally accused of embezzlement and deception

Korean prosecutors today (12-5) formally accused fraud and corruption against researcher Hwang Woo-suk in the germ cell research work.

Mr. Hwang was officially charged with deception and embezzlement - Photo: AP

He was also accused of violating medical ethics laws. Five other scientists were also formally charged with him.

The supposedly groundbreaking work, including the creation of a cloned embryonic stem cell line, was found to be untrue.

Senior prosecutor Lee In-Kyu said that currently Mr. Hwang has not been arrested.

At the end of last year, Mr. Hwang received 41.7 billion won (42.2 million USD) in the government budget and 4.3 billion won (4.35 million USD) from private funds for research. mine.

However, the inspection and audit committee did not declare the amount of 2.5 billion won ($ 2.6 million) in this amount.

Germ cell germs:

February 2004: Mr. Hwang's team announced that they had created 30 asexual embryos and extracted germ cells.

May 2005: The group said it had created 11 stem cells from skin cells.

November 2005: Mr. Hwang apologized to the people for using eggs from team members to study.

December 15, 2005: a colleague in the group accused the study of stem cells as fake.

December 23, 2005: The Scientific Investigation Commission found that the research results published in May 2005 were fake.

January 10, 2006: The investigation team discovered the study in 2004 was also fake.

May 12, 2006: Prosecutors formally accused Mr. Hwang of being dishonest and corrupt.

KIM NHUNG