Prosecutors Appeal 1 Year 6 Months Sentence for Former Seoul Police Intelligence Chief Over 'Itaewon Report Deletion'

The prosecution appealed the first-instance ruling that sentenced former Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Public Safety Information and Foreign Affairs Division Chief Park Seong-min to 1 year and 6 months in prison for ordering the deletion of internal police reports related to the Itaewon disaster.

Park Seong-min, former head of the Public Safety Information and Foreign Affairs Division at Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.
[Photo by Kim Hyun-min]

On the 20th, the Seoul Western District Prosecutors' Office announced that it had filed an appeal against the first-instance sentences: 1 year and 6 months imprisonment for Park, who was convicted of instructing evidence destruction and damaging public electronic records, and 1 year imprisonment with a 3-year probation for Kim Jin-ho, former Public Safety Information and Foreign Affairs Section Chief at the Seoul Yongsan Police Station.

The prosecution explained the grounds for the appeal, stating, "Considering that the defendants committed serious crimes that endangered the national criminal justice function and denied the charges without showing remorse, we seek a heavier sentence."

Park and Kim are accused of ordering frontline intelligence officers to delete four documents, including the 'Itaewon Halloween Festival Public Safety Risk Analysis' report and the Special Reconnaissance Intelligence (SRI) report, in preparation for the police investigation following the Itaewon disaster.

The first-instance court stated, "As members of the police organization, the defendants had the responsibility to sincerely cooperate with investigations and inspections by actively submitting existing materials." However, it took into account as mitigating factors that only four reports were deleted, which was not a large amount, and that the investigative agencies had already secured the materials.

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