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It was the first conviction of officials over the failure by
authorities to prevent or adequately respond to the overcrowding
that occurred in the popular Itaewon district. No top-level
officials have been charged or held accountable, prompting
criticism from bereaved families and opposition politicians.
The crush, one of the biggest peacetime disasters in South
Korea, caused a nationwide outpouring of grief. The victims, who
were mostly in their 20s and 30s, had gathered in Itaewon for
Halloween celebrations.
The Seoul Western District Court sentenced Lee Im-jae, the
former chief of Seoul’s Yongsan police station, whose
jurisdiction includes Itaewon, to three years in prison. It
sentenced another Yongsan police officer to two years in prison
and gave a third officer a suspended two-year term.
The three officers were convicted of professional negligence
resulting in death. The court ruled that the crush wasn’t a
natural disaster and could have been prevented or the toll
reduced if the three officers had prepared properly for the
crowd, alerted others of the danger quickly and supervised other
police officers appropriately.
The police officers and prosecutors can both appeal the ruling.
The court also ruled that Park Hee-young, head of the Yongsan
ward office, and three other ward officials were not guilty. It
said a ward office was unlikely to have a legal right to control
or break up a crowd of people.
Bereaved family members criticized the acquittal of Park and the
other ward officials.
“Does this make sense? We can't really accept this,” Lee Jeong-min,
a representative of the families, told reporters.
In early 2023, a police special investigation concluded that
police and municipal officials had failed to formulate effective
crowd control measures despite anticipating a huge number of
people in Itaewon. Investigators said police also ignored
hotline calls by pedestrians who warned of swelling crowds
before the surge turned deadly.
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