By The New York Times (World News) | Created at 2024-09-30 09:55:07 | Updated at 2024-10-07 00:22:49
6 days ago
Asia Pacific|Senior South Korean Police Officer Sentenced to 3 Years Over Crowd Crush
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/30/world/asia/skorea-itaewon-police-chief-convicted.html
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Lee Im-jae, a former district chief, is the most senior official to be convicted in connection with the 2022 disaster that killed nearly 160 Halloween partygoers.
Sept. 30, 2024, 5:49 a.m. ET
A Seoul court sentenced a senior police officer to three years in prison on Monday, convicting him of contributing through negligence to a Halloween crowd crush that killed nearly 160 people in 2022 in one of South Korea’s worst peacetime disasters.
Lee Im-jae, the former chief of police in Yongsan District, the area in central Seoul where the disaster happened, was the most senior police officer to be found guilty of a crime related to the shocking tragedy.
Victims’ families remain deeply unsatisfied and angry with the government’s investigation into the deadly crowd crush. Prosecutors have indicted a total of 23 people, mostly middle-ranking police and civilian officials. So far a handful have been convicted, with the longest sentence being handed to Mr. Lee.
But on Monday, the district court acquitted Park Hee-young, the elected mayor of Yongsan District, of criminal negligence, allowing her to continue in office.
The most senior official indicted — Kim Kwang-ho, the former chief of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency — is on trial on criminal charges similar to the ones Mr. Lee faced.
On the evening of Oct. 29, 2022, thousands of young people packed into Itaewon, a popular neighborhood for nightlife in Yongsan, to enjoy the first post-pandemic, restriction-free Halloween weekend in Seoul. Hundreds jammed into a narrow and sloping alleyway from both ends, creating a deadly squeeze in the middle.
