4 Years in Prison for 23 Deaths: Bereaved Families Outraged Over Arisell Disaster Verdict

[Anchor]

Regarding the Arisell battery manufacturing plant disaster that claimed the lives of 23 workers, the Supreme Court has finalized a four-year prison sentence for the head of Arisell. The 15-year prison sentence from the first trial was drastically reduced to four years in the second trial, and was finalized today (October 20). Bereaved families and labor circles have strongly protested.

Reporter Jeon Yeonnam has the details.

[Reporter]

Gray smoke billows into the sky, accompanied by a continuous series of explosions.

This was the scene during the Arisell plant fire in June of the year before last, which killed 23 workers and injured 9 others.

At the time, Arisell CEO Park Soon-kwan and Executive General Manager Park Jung-eun, his son, were indicted on charges including violations of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act for failing to inspect risk factors and failing to prepare disaster response manuals. They were each sentenced to 15 years in prison in the first trial.

However, the appellate court overturned the first-trial ruling, sentencing CEO Park to four years in prison and the executive general manager to seven years.

The reasoning was that they had no obligation to install and maintain emergency exits, and because the disaster occurred while they were receiving consulting to comply with the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, it could not be said that they ignored safety issues.

The Supreme Court ruled today that there were no flaws in the appellate court's decision, finalizing the second-trial prison sentences.

Bereaved families strongly protested, stating they would even consider filing a constitutional complaint.

[Lee Soon-hee / Bereaved Family Member: How can South Korea's laws be like this? Twenty-three people died. They couldn't even breathe properly trapped inside that factory, and it is just so unfair.]

Since the implementation of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act in 2022 until June of last year, out of 85 business management executives indicted, only 3 have been sentenced to prison.

The four-year prison term handed down to CEO Park today is known to be the highest final sentence ever given to a corporate executive responsible for management.

[Shin Ha-na / Attorney: The law does not function just by existing; appropriate judgments must be made for penalties to have a deterrent effect. Because this judgment is practically equivalent to denying that, it undermines the law.]

The two major umbrella labor unions also condemned the Supreme Court ruling, calling it a flawed decision that neutralizes the Serious Accidents Punishment Act and undermines judicial justice.

(Video by Yang Hyun-chul | Video Editing by Kim Yoon-sung)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.