Ex-Police Chief of Seoul Cleared of Criminal Negligence Over Crowd Crush

A ​South Korean court on Thursday ​acquitted the former ​police chief of Seoul of criminal charges stemming from the Halloween crowd crush in 2022 that killed 159 people.

Kim Kwang-ho​ stepped down as the head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency after he was indicted in January on charges of contributing to the deaths through negligence. He was the most senior official to face legal consequences over the tragedy, one of the worst peacetime disasters in South Korea’s history.

​In its ruling on Thursday, a three-judge panel in the Western Seoul District Court said that there was not enough evidence that Mr. Kim deliberately neglected his duty to prevent the crowd crush.

Thousands of young people packed into Itaewon, a popular nightlife neighborhood in central Seoul, on the evening of Oct. 29, 2022. They were there to​ celebrate the first post-pandemic, restriction-free Halloween weekend. But as the crowds swelled, hundreds were forced into a narrow and sloping alleyway from both ends, creating a suffocating squeeze in the middle.

Prosecutors have indicted 23 people, mostly middle-ranking police and civilian officials​, following an investigation led by the national police agency. But victims’ families say there has been little accountability for the disaster, calling the inquiry a whitewash.

In a separate trial last month, Lee Im-jae, the former chief of police in Yongsan District, which includes Itaewon, was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of contributing to the deaths through official negligence. Park Hee-young, the elected mayor of the district, was found not guilty of the same charge.

Prosecutors have appealed the rulings in those cases because they had sought a longer sentence for Mr. Lee. They have