Court to deliver verdicts for Yongsan Ward office chief, ex-Yongsan police chief over Itaewon crowd crush

A Seoul court is set to deliver verdicts Monday for the Yongsan Ward office chief and a former chief of the Yongsan Police Station over the deadly 2022 crowd crush in the district of Itaewon.

Park Hee-young, head of the Yongsan Ward office, and former Yongsan Police Station chief Lee Im-jae were indicted last year over allegations that they failed to take steps to prevent the crowd crush that left 159 people dead on a Halloween weekend in the Itaewon nightlife district on Oct. 29, 2022.

The Seoul Western District Court was scheduled to sentence them on charges of professional negligence resulting in death and injury, nearly two years after South Korea's worst-ever crowd crush.

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.

Lee and Park were also charged with falsely stating in official documents the time they arrived at the scene in an apparent attempt to avoid criticism they failed to respond properly to the tragedy.

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