Chief of hotel adjoining Itaewon tragedy site fined for illegal extension

▲ The chief of Hamilton Hotel, which adjoins the site of the 2022 Itaewon crowd crush, enters the Seoul Western District Court on Nov. 29, 2023. (Yonhap)

Itaewon tragedy-hotel chief

Chief of hotel adjoining Itaewon tragedy site fined for illegal extension

SEOUL, Nov. 29 (Yonhap) -- The chief of a hotel adjoining the site of last year's deadly crowd crush in Seoul was sentenced to a fine Wednesday for an illegal extension that made the narrow accident alley even narrower.

A total of 159 people were killed in the crowd crush on a narrow downhill alley in Seoul's Itaewon district on a Halloween weekend last year.

The chief of Hamilton Hotel, whose outer wall borders the alley, was indicted in January on charges of installing illegal structures extending to the alley and unlawfully occupying the path.

News media and critics have pointed out the hotel's extended structures may have made the narrow alley even narrower.

The Seoul Western District Court sentenced the 76-year-old Hamilton Hotel chief, identified only by his family name Lee, to a fine of 8 million won (US$6,200).

Prosecutors had earlier demanded a one-year prison sentence for him.

The sentence marks the first court ruling on those indicted in connection with the deadly crowd crush.

Currently, trials are under way for multiple officials indicted on charges related to the bungled disaster and first-aid response, including Yongsan Ward office chief Park Hee-young, who administers the Itaewon district, and former Yongsan Police Station chief Lee Im-jae.

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