South Korean police investigating the death of a Hong Kong fashion empire heiress during plastic surgery in Seoul early this year said Thursday the operating surgeon has been found at fault for the medical accident and her death.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA) said it booked the Seoul doctor, whose identity was withheld, without detention on charges of professional negligence in the death of 35-year-old Hong Kong citizen Bonnie Evita Law and violating the foreign patient attraction and narcotics control laws. It sent the case to the prosecution with an opinion of indictment.

The late Law was a granddaughter of the founder of Bossini International Holdings Ltd., a famous Hong Kong fashion company.

She visited a southern Seoul plastic surgery clinic on Jan. 28 to receive liposuction, a fat-removal surgery, in celebration of her birthday. She was reportedly introduced to the hospital through an illegal Korean broker.

During the procedure, her oxygen saturation level dropped to a dangerous level. She was transferred to a nearby hospital but died later that day, according to the police. Her bereaved family filed a criminal complaint with the Seoul Gangnam Police Station, which transferred the case to the SMPA considering the gravity of the incident.

A consulting coordinator of the Seoul hospital was also booked without detention on charges of fabricating Law's surgery agreement and her signatures, and was referred to the prosecution with an opinion of indictment, the police agency said.

The police agency has conducted extensive investigations into the hospital's surveillance camera footage, medical records and financial documents, and confirmed the doctor's professional negligence resulted in the death of Law, as well as the hospital's legal violations in the process of attracting foreign patients, obtaining surgery agreements and managing narcotics.

"(The police) will beef up investigations on crimes related to the illegal attraction of foreign patients and try our best to prevent similar cases from happening, working with related authorities," an SMPA official said. (Yonhap)