Prosecutors: "Post-deletion of Itaewon report is illegal" vs Police: "Order according to regulations"

Opinions diverged between police executives and prosecutors over the reason for deleting the 'Police Risk Analysis Report' written before the Itaewon disaster after the incident. The accused police officers claimed it was an order in accordance with regulations to prevent human rights violations, but the prosecution argued it was an illegal order.

The Criminal Division 11 of the Seoul Western District Court (Presiding Judge Bae Seong-jung) held the 4th trial session on the afternoon of the 7th for Park Seong-min, former head of the Intelligence Department of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, and Kim Jin-ho, former head of the Intelligence Division of Yongsan Police Station, who were indicted on charges of instructing evidence destruction and damaging public electronic records. Park and Kim are accused of improperly ordering the deletion of four documents, including the 'Itaewon Halloween Festival Public Safety Risk Analysis' report and the Special Reconnaissance Intelligence (SRI) report, which were prepared by the intelligence officers of Yongsan Police Station before the disaster.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Before witness examination, the prosecution rebutted the statement from Kim’s side that "the order to delete the Itaewon disaster intelligence reports was a lawful directive to comply with regulations protecting human rights." The prosecution stated, "The regulation was established as a reflection on past cases where police officers collected information and prepared reports that were used for surveillance and other human rights violations," adding, "It is questionable how a report warning of potential problems due to the Itaewon Halloween crowd could harm citizens' human rights."

The prosecution further explained, "If the regulation was truly a sacred rule for human rights protection, it is incomprehensible that the regulation was not followed until the disaster occurred, but mass deletion was ordered only after related investigations and audits began."

Moreover, the prosecution emphasized the necessity of the reports targeted for deletion based on four reasons: ▲determining the cause of the disaster ▲establishing measures to prevent recurrence ▲materials to be submitted to the National Assembly ▲evidence of police officers' work performance.

Park denied ordering the deletion of one of the four reports. Regarding the other three, Park claimed, "I did not order deletion but rather did not submit them." On the other hand, Kim asserted that he deleted the reports "following repeated orders from my superior, former head Park."

Meanwhile, as a witness on the day, Kim, an intelligence officer affiliated with Yongsan Police Station at the time of the Itaewon disaster, appeared in court. Officer Kim testified, consistent with four other intelligence officers from Yongsan Police Station who previously appeared as witnesses, that the Itaewon disaster risk analysis report was deleted from the office PC under Kim Jin-ho’s orders.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.