Two former police officers were convicted on Wednesday for seeking to have internal reports of mass panic during Halloween celebrations in Seoul 2022 deleted. Even before the disaster, colleagues had warned about the threat of crowds.
On the night of October 30, 2022, tens of thousands of people, mainly young people, crowded the streets and bars of the Itaewon entertainment district in Seoul (South Korea) without police intervention. Nearly 160 people were killed at the time (see video above).
On Wednesday, a former senior police officer in Seoul was sentenced to a year and a half in prison. An ex-colleague from the Yongsan Police Station was given a one-year prison sentence and a three-year suspended sentence. “The defendants should have actively participated in the investigation by preserving existing records, but instead they deleted internal reports written before the accident and destroyed evidence,” the court said.
First police officers convicted
The two officers who have already been suspended are the first police officers to be convicted due to the disaster. So far, only officials from the responsible district office have been held responsible. There have been no resignations to date. In January, Seoul’s police chief was indicted.
Source: Krone
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