2024-01-20 09:53:18
– Seoul police chief charged with negligence
Kim Kwang-ho is accused of failing in his duty during the 2022 Halloween tragedy in Itaewon. Insufficient measures would have led to 160 victims.
Published today at 10:53 a.m.
A man holds a “Reveal the Truth” sign during a vigil in Seoul on October 29, 2023, to mark the first anniversary of the tragic mob crush that killed 159 people during Halloween celebrations, in the neighborhood popular nightclub in Itaewon in Seoul a year ago.
AFP
Seoul’s police chief has been charged with professional negligence for the deadly stampede on Halloween that left nearly 160 dead in the center of the city in 2022. This was announced by the capital’s prosecutor’s office. South Korean on Friday.
Kim Kwang-ho, the head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, was charged with professional negligence resulting in injury or death, the capital’s Western District Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement.
On the evening of Saturday, October 29, 2022, tens of thousands of people, mostly in their 20s and 30s, were out enjoying the post-pandemic celebrations in Itaewon, a cosmopolitan neighborhood in Seoul. The evening turned tragic when a crowd of revelers found themselves trapped in a sloping bottleneck between lanes of bars and nightclubs. More than 150 people died in the stampede.
Mr. Kim “failed to take necessary measures, such as deploying sufficient police forces and ensuring proper command and supervision” on the day of the disaster, although he was able to “foresee the potential dangers arising » of the presence of too large a number of people, explains the press release from the prosecution.
Call for dismissal
Mr. Kim, the highest-ranking police official to face justice over the tragedy, was charged without detention. In January 2023, he and 22 other officials from the police, emergency services and district offices were referred to the prosecution by a special police investigation for their alleged role in government mismanagement of this tragedy.
Prosecutors indicted the police chiefs of Yongsan district, which includes the Itaewon neighborhood, and the district city hall, but had not made a decision for more than a year regarding Mr. Kim. The latter “along with the Yongsan police chief and the director of Yongsan City Hall, who are currently on trial, collectively caused the deaths of 158 individuals and the injuries of 312 individuals due to professional negligence.”
The victims’ families said they regretted the long delay before the decision to charge Kim Kwang-ho. “Chief Kim must immediately leave office and be brought to justice,” the families called in a statement. “President Yoon Suk Yeol must fire Kim immediately.”
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