Six private event organisers and four city workers are looking down the barrel of jail time if found guilty for the involuntary manslaughter of 21 people including a handful of Australians in a stampede at the 2010 edition of famous annual German dance music festival, Love Parade.

State Prosecutors have gathered enough evidence to prove that Love Parade’s supposed maximum capacity of 250,000 attendees was in fact, not true. They ended up with a headcount of almost double that with 500,000 punters and incorrectly assessed access points (being the underpass into the festival grounds at a former freight rail yard where the stamped infamously happened).

Duisburg City prosecutor Horst Bien quoted “We weren’t looking to see who was morally or politically responsible but instead focused only on who was criminally liable.” The punishment is looking likely to be, if convicted, up to 5 years in jail for each of the 10 people made accountable for the tragedy.

Let’s hope we never see a tragedy like this again…

Source: Guardian