[Anchor]

Regarding the death of a sanitation worker at an administrative welfare center in Suwon 8 years ago, civil servants and fellow workers were put on trial for destroying key evidence at the time. While police judged there were no charges, the court found all of them guilty.

Reporter An Huijae has the details.

[Reporter]

The incident began in September 2018 at an administrative welfare center in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province.

A 2-meter-high shoe cabinet installed on a stairway landing collapsed onto a sanitation worker, identified as A.

Worker A ultimately passed away a month later, and it was later revealed that the shoe cabinet in question had vanished about 30 minutes after the accident.

Circumstances were captured showing that fellow sanitation workers dismantled the shoe cabinet immediately after the accident under the instructions of a city official surnamed Han.

In a civil lawsuit, Suwon City's negligence in managing the shoe cabinet was acknowledged, and the bereaved family filed a complaint arguing that Han and the others attempted to evade responsibility, but the police concluded there were no charges.

Despite repeated requests for supplementary investigation, police judged there was no intent to destroy evidence, based on claims by Han such as, "Don't people clear away debris when a traffic accident occurs?"

As reported by SBS, the bereaved family's persistent efforts to uncover the truth led to a prosecution investigation and a court order for indictment.

The court sentenced Han and all three sanitation workers to guilty verdicts yesterday (October 23).

Although Han and the others denied the charges, the bench stated, "Anyone could easily have anticipated that defects in the installation and management of the shoe cabinet were linked to worker A's harm, and the possibility of criminal and disciplinary responsibility was also easily foreseeable." The court concluded, "The intent to impair the evidentiary value of the shoe cabinet is recognized, even if it was oblique intent."

Criticizing that the nature of the crime was poor and that the bereaved family must have suffered immense pain as their crimes prevented the family from uncovering the true facts from the beginning, the court sentenced Han to 8 months in prison with a 2-year suspension, and fined the sanitation workers 2 million won each with a 1-year suspension of execution.

Suwon City plans to review the verdict and take follow-up measures regarding the sanitation workers who received fines.

(Video Editing: Lee Seung-jin, Design: Kang Yun-jung)