Itaewon massacre: Prosecutors appeal for ”heavier punishment” for Yongsan District Head and former Yongsan Police Chief = South Korea

The negligence of Seoul's Yongsan-gu Office and Yongsan Police Station officials regarding the Itaewon disaster that occurred on October 29, 2022 will be investigated again in the second trial.
On the 7th, the Western District Prosecutors' Office of Seoul announced that it had indicted Park Hee-Young, head of Yongsan-gu Office, and Lee Im-jae, former head of Yongsan Police Station, who were both charged with professional negligence resulting in death and injury, as well as other officials of the Yongsan-gu Office.
The prosecution said it had filed an appeal against the first-instance ruling against nine people, including four police officers and four police officers.
The prosecution said, "The court misinterpreted the facts and misunderstood the legal principles. The court said, 'Yongsan-gu does not have any authorization to prevent a large number of people from entering the district or to disband the district.'
However, the Disaster Safety Act gives local governments the responsibility to protect the public from disasters and to prepare countermeasures, and requires them to cooperate with related agencies at the disaster site.
The bill also stipulates that the police must take responsibility for coordinating and taking emergency measures.
) and falsely testified at a National Assembly hearing that he had become aware of the disaster even later and that he had instructed the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency to request support from the riot police (perjury under the National Assembly Testimony Appraisal Act).
"I also cannot accept that he was found not guilty of charges including the creation and distribution of false press releases that included false information about the time of his arrival at the scene of the disaster (creating and using false official documents)."
The prosecution said, "Considering that the arrival times of the former police chief and the district office chief Park at the scene of the accident were clearly falsely recorded and that there are sufficient circumstances to confirm that the defendants ordered and carried out this, the first-instance court
"The defendants' negligence and the consequences that arose from it are extremely serious, but they still shifted the responsibility for the accident to them and did not seriously reflect on it," he said.
"We appealed to seek a harsher sentence than the crime deserves, taking into consideration the fact that the crime was not committed and that the accused did not commit the crime," he added.
The head of the 112 Situation Room at Yongsan Police Station also filed an appeal to the court on the 4th. Prior to this, the first instance court held a sentencing hearing on the 30th of last month for charges of professional negligence resulting in death and injury against the heads of Yongsan Police and the district office.
In addition, former chief Lee was sentenced to three years in prison. Former chief Song was sentenced to two years in prison, former 112 situation team leader Park was sentenced to one year in prison with two years of probation, and former 112 situation team leader Jung Hee-soo was sentenced to one year in prison with two years of probation for creating and using false public documents.
Yeong-woo (54), former head of the Women's Youth Division, and Choi, a former security guard in the Public Safety Division, were found not guilty.