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.
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.
