The Seoul Western District Court convicted three former police officers on Wednesday over the destruction of evidence, including several “Halloween intelligence reports,” to conceal the truth after the Itaewon crowd crush. The crowd crush occurred in South Korea’s capital city, Seoul, on October 31, 2022 and resulted in the death of 159 people and the injury of 196 others.

The 11th Criminal Division of the Seoul Western District Court sentenced former Seoul Metropolitan Government Information Department Director Park Seong-min to one year in prison on charges of abetting the deletion of evidence surrounding the crowd crush. Moreover, the court sentenced former Head of the Intelligence Department at Yongsan Police Station Kim Jin-ho to one year in prison, with three years of probation, on the same charges. The court also sentenced an employee of the Yongsan Station to four months in prison on charges of the deletion of evidence.

According to the Police Duty Execution Act, Korean intelligence police’s primary responsibility is to gather, analyze and disseminate information aimed at preventing and addressing public security threats. Therefore, if the prevention and response to public security dangers have not been completed, the relevant intelligence report cannot be considered unnecessary.

The charges stem from a crowd crush in a downhill alley during the 2022 Halloween festivities in the neighborhood of Itaewon. Following the deadly incident, the Korean National Police Agency launched an investigation into the causes of the crush.

Previously, the National Assembly attempted to hold Interior and Safety Minister Lee Sang-min responsible for the crush through an impeachment request. However, that effort was rejected by the Constitutional Court of South Korea in July 2023 because the festivities did not have a single organizer. The court found “it [was] difficult to ask [the Interior Safety Ministry] to take measures in advance … in order to prevent the disaster.”