Ex-Yongsan police chief gets 3 yrs in prison over Itaewon crowd crush; Yongsan ward chief acquitted

A Seoul court on Monday sentenced a former chief of the Yongsan Police Station to three years in prison without labor over the deadly 2022 crowd crush in Seoul’s Itaewon district, saying the danger was foreseeable, but he failed to take safety measures.

Lee Im-jae, 54, was indicted last year on charges of professional negligence resulting in death and injury after South Korea’s worst-ever crowd crush left 159 people dead on Halloween weekend in the Itaewon nightlife district on Oct. 29, 2022.

“It was either foreseen or it could have been anticipated that a large crowd of people gathering at the slanted alleyway in Itaewon for the 2022 Halloween could cause a serious danger to bodies from pedestrians pushing and pressuring each other,” the court said.

Yongsan Ward Office chief Park Hee-young and other ward officials were also indicted, but the same court found them not guilty, saying related law and regulations did not require them to come up with safety measures for events without organizers.

“Crowd crush from large gatherings was not categorized as a disaster under relevant law at the time, and there were no obligatory regulations specifying the need to establish separate safety management plans for events without a host,” the court said.

The prosecution has claimed the defendants failed to follow through on their rights and duty to prevent the disaster although accidents from large crowds were foreseeable, and demanded seven-year prison terms for both Lee and Park.

The defendants, however, maintained during the entirety of the trial that such a large-scale crowd crush could not have been anticipated beforehand, therefore they had no liability for the incident.

Twenty-three people, including two corporations, have been indicted so far in connection to the tragedy.

Following the court ruling, the bereaved family members of the victims held a press conference in front of the court, denouncing the ruling that acquitted the Yongsan ward office chief of her charges, while urging the prosecution to appeal the ruling for both defendants for more stern punishment.