A South Korean courtroom has given three cops jail sentences over their dealing with of a 2022 Halloween crush in a Seoul nightlife district that killed 159 folks.
The convictions on Monday are the primary over the failure by authorities to stop or adequately reply to the overcrowding that occurred within the widespread Itaewon district. No top-level officers have been charged or held accountable, prompting criticism from bereaved households and opposition politicians.
The crush, one of many greatest peacetime disasters in South Korea, prompted a nationwide outpouring of grief. The victims, who have been largely of their 20s and 30s, had gathered in Itaewon for Halloween celebrations.
The Seoul western district courtroom gave three years in jail to Lee Im-jae – the previous chief of Seoul’s Yongsan police station, whose jurisdiction contains Itaewon. One other Yongsan police officer was sentenced to 2 years in jail and a 3rd officer obtained a suspended two-year time period.
The three officers have been convicted {of professional} negligence leading to dying. The courtroom dominated that the crush was not a pure catastrophe and will have been prevented or the toll decreased if the three officers had ready correctly for the group, alerted others of the hazard rapidly and supervised different cops appropriately.
The cops and prosecutors can each attraction.
The courtroom additionally dominated that Park Hee-young, head of the Yongsan ward workplace, and three different ward officers weren’t responsible. It mentioned a ward workplace was unlikely to have a authorized proper to manage or break up a crowd of individuals.
Bereaved relations criticised the acquittals of Park and the opposite ward officers. “Does this make sense? We can’t really accept this,” mentioned Lee Jeong-min, a consultant of the households.
In early 2023 a police particular investigation concluded that police and municipal officers had did not formulate efficient crowd management measures regardless of anticipating a big variety of folks in Itaewon. Investigators mentioned police additionally ignored hotline calls by pedestrians who warned of swelling crowds earlier than the surge turned lethal.
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