▲ A file photo of Aili Wang released by the Associated Press in 2024
A Chinese graduate student in the United States has been arrested by police for poisoning a fellow graduate student's beverage, leaving the victim seriously injured, and attempting to flee to China.
According to the Associated Press, Aili Wang, a 32-year-old Chinese national enrolled in a master's and doctoral program in microbiology at the University of Wyoming, was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on the 6th of last month on charges of aggravated assault and battery, and is currently in custody.
The victim was identified as a Vietnamese graduate student who was preparing to file a patent in the field of disease treatment technology.
The victim began experiencing severe fatigue, insomnia, finger numbness, and leg weakness starting in August.
One day, while brewing and drinking tea using the coffee machine on the office desk, the victim noticed a strange taste.
Subsequently, the victim's wife and people around them evaporated the water from the coffee machine, and delivered 63 mg of the extracted white powder to the police.
The substance was revealed to be acrylamide, a neurotoxic substance.
Closed-circuit (CC) TV footage inside the laboratory reviewed by the police upon receiving the case captured Wang photographing the victim's research notes and rinsing the victim's cup with liquid from Wang's own cup.
Investigations showed that Wang had harbored feelings of jealousy toward the victim, who was achieving great success in new technology research related to cancer and genetic disease treatments, after Wang failed the first round of the degree dissertation defense.
If convicted in court, Wang could face up to 10 years in prison.
The Wyoming court, at the request of the prosecution, significantly increased Wang's bail from the original 200,000 dollars (approx. 270 million KRW) to 1.5 million dollars (approx. 2 billion KRW).
(Photo: AP/Yonhap News)
※
Copying, redistribution, and unauthorized use in AI training are strictly prohibited.