A man accused of insulting the bereaved families and victims of the deadly crowd crush in the nightlife district of Itaewon and spreading false information has been arrested.
The National Office of Investigation (NOI) Second Offense Crime Investigation Division of the Korean National Police Agency said on the 4th it has arrested a man in his 60s, identified as A, who is accused of repeatedly posting some 700 posts mocking the bereaved families of the deadly crowd crush in the nightlife district of Itaewon or containing false content on online communities and overseas video platforms, and is currently investigating.
The National Office of Investigation (NOI) Second Offense Crime Investigation Division was launched in July last year on the orders of President Lee Jae-myung, and this arrest is the first case of taking a perpetrator into custody since its launch.
Police began a full-scale investigation in September last year after the bereaved families of the deadly crowd crush in the nightlife district of Itaewon filed a complaint over 119 posts containing conspiracy theories and defamatory content.
As a result of the investigation, A was found to have tried to gain financial profit by uploading manipulated and edited videos to overseas video platforms and major domestic online communities while displaying a donation account.
Police sought an arrest warrant for A, citing concerns about destruction of evidence, risk of recidivism, and the seriousness of the case, and the court granted it.
Meanwhile, the National Office of Investigation (NOI) Second Offense Crime Investigation Division has received 154 cases of secondary offense crimes since its launch and has referred 20 of them to prosecutors. Recently, ahead of the first anniversary of the 12/29 Jeju Air passenger plane disaster, it requested the deletion and blocking of posts suspected of crimes targeting bereaved families, and launched immediate investigations into eight cases.