A South Korean court handed a three-year jail term Monday to a former Seoul district police chief over a crush that killed more than 150 people, the Yonhap news agency reported.
Tens of thousands of people, mostly in their 20s and 30s, had been out on October 29, 2022, to enjoy the first post-pandemic Halloween celebrations in the popular Itaewon nightlife district.
But the night turned deadly when people poured into a narrow, sloping alleyway between bars and clubs, the weight of their bodies and a lack of effective crowd control leading to scores of people being crushed to death.
Former Yongsan district police chief Lee Im-jae was found guilty of failing to prevent the crush, the first police officer to be convicted for a direct role in the disaster.
“It was foreseeable that there would be a large crowd of people in the sloped alley of Itaewon that would lead to serious danger to life and physical safety on the Halloween weekend in 2022,” the Seoul Western District Court said in the guilty verdict, Yonhap reported.
Another former officer in charge of the Yongsan police emergency center was sentenced Monday to two years in jail on the same charges.
“This ruling, which acknowledges the responsibility of police officers in connection to the tragedy, is a rightful outcome in holding those responsible for the disaster accountable,” a group of victims’ families said in a statement.
The Seoul court, however, found local official Park Hee-young, head of the Yongsan Ward office, not guilty on similar charges.
“The direct cause of the accident in this case was the influx of a large crowd,” the court said, according to the Korean news agency Newsis.
“There are no existing regulations granting administrative authorities the power to control the crowd influx or disperse crowds,” it said in acquitting Park and three former ward officials.
Police chief verdict
Earlier this year, two former senior police officers were jailed for destroying evidence linked to the crush, making them the first police to be sentenced in connection to the incident.
The court found that in the aftermath of the disaster, they had ordered the deletion of four internal police reports that had identified in advance safety concerns over possible overcrowding in the area.
Kim Kwang-ho, the former head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, has also been on trial and is awaiting a verdict on charges of professional negligence resulting in injury or death.
Prosecutors are seeking a five-year term for the ex-chief, with a verdict expected next month.
Kim has denied wrongdoing, telling the court in April: “Instead of seeking a scapegoat, real preventive measures should be carried out,” broadcaster JTBC has reported.
District-level officials have been prosecuted over the disaster, but no high-ranking members of government have resigned or faced prosecution, despite criticism from victims’ families over a lack of accountability.
South Korea’s rapid transformation from a war-torn country to Asia’s fourth-largest economy and a global cultural powerhouse is a source of national pride.
But a series of preventable disasters, such as the 2022 crush and the 2014 Sewol ferry sinking that killed 304 people, has shaken public confidence in authorities.
