The lower court ruling that sentenced former representatives of SK Chemicals and Aekyung Industrial to imprisonment for manufacturing and selling harmful humidifier disinfectants has been overturned by the Supreme Court.
On the 26th, the Supreme Court’s first division (chief justice Seo Kyung-hwan) overturned the lower court’s decision, which sentenced Hong Ji-ho (74), former representative of SK Chemicals, and Ahn Yong-chan (65), former representative of Aekyung Industrial, to four years of imprisonment each on charges including professional negligence resulting in death. The case has been sent back to the Seoul High Court.
The Supreme Court stated that “the grounds cited by the previous court (second instance) are insufficient to establish joint complicity in negligence,” adding that “there are reasons to reverse the judgment concerning the victims with complex usage in the indictment against the defendants.”
Former representatives Hong and Ahn were indicted in July 2019 for manufacturing and selling the humidifier disinfectant ‘Humidifier Mate,’ which contained toxic chemicals such as chloromethylisothiazolinone (CMIT) and methylisothiazolinone (MIT), resulting in lung diseases or asthma in 98 people, including 12 fatalities.
They were acquitted in the first trial but found guilty in the second trial, which imposed prison sentences. However, the Supreme Court accepted their appeal, citing misunderstandings of the law in the second trial, and returned the case for retrial.