South Korea Halloween crush: police officials jailed over 'man-made' tragedy

A South Korean court sentenced the former police chief of Seoul’s Yongsan district, Lee Im-jae, to three years in prison for mishandling the response to the 2022 Halloween crowd crush in Itaewon, which resulted in 159 deaths. This makes Lee the first senior police official convicted over the tragedy. The Seoul Western District Court ruled that Lee failed to anticipate the risks of the large Halloween gathering, which led to the disaster.

The Itaewon tragedy deeply affected the country, still haunted by the 2014 Sewol ferry sinking that killed 304 people, including many schoolchildren. Two other former Yongsan police officials were also sentenced—one received a two-year jail term, while the other was given a suspended one-year sentence. The court labeled the crush a "man-made disaster" that could have been prevented or mitigated if the officials had done their jobs properly.

Lee's lawyer argued that it was unreasonable to expect his client to have predicted such an event. Meanwhile, Yongsan district chief Park Hee-young and three other officials were acquitted, as the court determined they were not directly responsible for crowd control.

Relatives of the victims had pushed for accountability from both Lee and Park, as well as other senior officials, including the Interior and Safety Minister Lee Sang-min. Although attempts to impeach the minister failed last year, parliament passed a bill earlier this year to reopen investigations into the Itaewon tragedy. Prosecutors had initially sought seven-year prison sentences for both Lee and Park.