Whether the 'Itaewon disaster' is guilty or not?...Is it legally obligated?

[Anchor]
'The police chief is guilty, and the head of the district office is not guilty'

Controversy continues over the results of the first trial between former Yongsan Police Chief Lee Lim-jae and Yongsan-gu District Mayor Park Hee-young in connection with the recent Itaewon disaster.

Reporter Yoon Woong-sung pointed out why the court's judgment was mixed.

[Reporter]
The criterion that distinguished the guilt of former Yongsan chief Lee Lim-jae and Yongsan-gu chief Park Hee-young was whether they had a legal obligation or not.

The court saw that former Chief Lee was responsible for protecting the lives of the people under the Police Act and the Police Officer Duty Administration Act.

On the other hand, it was judged that Park Hee-young, the head of Yongsan-gu, was not responsible for the disaster safety law.

Crushing accidents are not classified as a type of disaster, and local governments are not obligated to come up with safety measures for organizers-free events, so they cannot be considered to be at fault in work.

After the disaster, local governments' obligation to take safety measures for multiple events without organizers was stipulated, but retroactive application is impossible.

However, some point out that the court interpreted the role of local governments too passively.

The Disaster Safety Act already stated that the state and local governments are responsible for protecting the lives of the people from various accidents, but they did not consider the ruling.

[Han Sang-hee / Honorary Professor of Konkuk University School of Law] Since we have a comprehensive duty of protection, we should be able to hold legal responsibility for violating our duties. This acquittal can also be seen as the result of such a limited interpretation of legal principles.]

The bereaved family, who received the first application for a fact-finding investigation to the Itaewon disaster special investigation committee, continued to criticize the court's judgment as well as the police special investigation headquarters and the prosecution's investigation.

[Lee Jung-min / Chairman of Itaewon Disaster Survivor's Council: I understand that the prosecution should explain and convince (the presiding judge) to clarify the responsibility for the wrongdoing and set the law and justice straight. I can't help but ask if I did enough and did my best.]

[Yoon Bok-nam / Co-CEO of Itaewon Citizens' Countermeasures Committee: Local governments are not responsible for crowd management just because it is an event without organizers. What attitude should Korean public officials take toward civil safety?.]

As a result, it is expected that one of the major issues will be how far the special investigation committee will see local governments' responsibilities in the future.

I'm YTN Yoon Woong Sung.



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