Nobel corruption probe dropped

An investigation into the alleged corruption of several members of the Nobel prize science committee will be laid down, a Swedish prosecutor announced Friday. The inquiry was launched at the end of last year after members of the medicine, physics and chemistry committees visited China on a trip paid for by Chinese authorities.

• Swedish MPs take Disneyland 'study' tour (18 Mar 10)
• University massacre threat suspect released (17 Mar 10)
• Student expresses regret over massacre threat (16 Mar 10)

"The preliminary investigation concerning the three members of the Nobel committees suspected of corruption... is going to be closed," Nils-Eric Schultz, the prosecutor heading the probe, said in a statement.

"The possibility of a single member of the Committee being able to influence the final choice of a laureate in a decisive way is practically nil," he added.

Schultz, a special corruption prosecutor, had announced the investigation last December, after committee members visited China.

Schultz stressed that invitation had not been to any individual committee members but to Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), to which three of the professors concerned had links.

The Chinese authorities who had issued the invitation could not therefore have intended to corrupt or influence members of the Nobel Committee, Schultz concluded.

The Nobel Prize for Medicine is awarded by the Karolinska Institute, while the physics and chemistry prizes are attributed by different committees from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

No Chinese citizen has won a Nobel Prize for the past three years.