Charges Including Negligent Homicide and Injury, and Forgery of Official Documents
Park Hee-young, the Yongsan District Mayor (63) who was prosecuted for inadequate response that worsened the damage during the Itaewon disaster, was acquitted in the first trial.
On the 30th, Park Hee-young, the mayor of Yongsan District (63), attended the sentencing trial held at the Seoul Western District Court in Mapo-gu, Seoul. [Photo by Yonhap News]
On the 30th, the Criminal Division 11 of the Seoul Western District Court (Presiding Judge Bae Seong-jung) acquitted Mayor Park, who was charged with professional negligence resulting in death and injury, and forgery and use of false official documents. Previously, the prosecution had requested a 7-year prison sentence for Mayor Park.
Additionally, the court acquitted Choi Won-jun, former Head of Safety and Disaster Management at Yongsan District Office, Yoo Seung-jae, former Deputy Mayor of Yongsan District Office, and Moon In-hwan, former Director of Safety, Construction, and Transportation at Yongsan District Office, who were also indicted alongside Mayor Park.
The court stated, "The duty of care in the course of work corresponds only to the abstract duty of care of the autonomous district, and it is difficult to consider that the defendants had specific duties of care. Furthermore, considering the situation of other autonomous districts, including that Yongsan District provided training to duty officers to familiarize them with the manual for operating the duty room, it is hard to see Yongsan District's response as particularly inadequate, and therefore, the defendants cannot be held criminally responsible."
Mayor Park was indicted in January last year on charges of failing to establish a safety management plan despite being able to foresee casualties caused by the large crowd on the day of the disaster, and not properly operating the permanent disaster safety situation room. He was also charged with forgery of official documents for allegedly using employees to falsely create and distribute records of his arrival time at the accident site and disaster response details to conceal Yongsan District Office's inappropriate response.
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