(LEAD) Constitutional Court rejects impeachment of interior minister

▲ Interior Minister Lee Sang-min (Yonhap)

(LEAD) interior minister-court

(LEAD) Constitutional Court rejects impeachment of interior minister

(ATTN: RECASTS headline; UPDATES throughout)

SEOUL, July 25 (Yonhap) -- The Constitutional Court on Tuesday rejected the National Assembly's impeachment of Interior Minister Lee Sang-min over last year's deadly crowd crush in Seoul, a decision that immediately reinstates him.

The nine-member court reached the unanimous decision, 167 days after the opposition Democratic Party-controlled National Assembly passed the impeachment motion to hold him accountable for October's crowd crush that left 159 people dead in Seoul's Itaewon district.

Lee, whose duties were suspended following the Feb. 8 impeachment, was immediately put back into office.

The main focus of the court's deliberations on the case had been whether Lee fulfilled his duty as interior minister in charge of public safety to take steps to prevent the tragedy and whether the government's response was appropriate.

The Constitutional Court held four rounds of public hearings on the case to hear from officials from the interior ministry, the national police and firefighting agencies, and the bereaved families of the crowd crush victims.

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