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The trial of disgraced cloning expert Hwang Woo-suk and five other scientists involved in the fabrication of stem cell research started at Seoul District Court on Tuesday. They are charged with fraud, embezzlement of W2.8 billion in public funds and breach of bioethics law.
Prosecutors called for strict punishment, saying the academic fraud was ¡°a historically significant case capable of ending a widespread practice where academics manipulate research results with impunity,¡± despite the fact that there is no precedent of legal punishment for academic fraud. Prosecutors cited the disappointment among the public, for whom Hwang was at one stage a national hero, among aggravating circumstances.
Defense lawyers argued it was wrong to use the law to deal with academic matters. They claimed Hwang did have the basic technology for experiments he failed to perform successfully, adding the prosecution¡¯s focus on a "lapse in the management of research funds" and purchase of human eggs for research was ¡°an attempt to fudge the case and incite public opinion.¡±
Hwang, who appeared in court in a black suit, listened tight-lipped as prosecutors and defense lawyers laid out their argument and refused to look at the gallery. Hwang only shifted in his seat when Lee Byung-chun of Seoul National University told prosecutors he had not been in a position to refuse Hwang¡¯s orders.
Some 100 die-hard supporters of Hwang attended the trial, and the court stationed around 200 police officers around the venue. Judge Hwang Hyeon-ju appealed to those in the gallery to cooperate. But Kim Sun-jong, a former researcher at the MizMedi Hospital accused of misleading Hwang over stem cells from in-vitro fertilized eggs, was loudly booed when he took the stand, obliging the judge to halt proceedings several times.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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