A Seoul court opened deliberations on Friday over a request for arrest warrants for former Yongsan police chief Lee Im-jae as well as the former head of the Yongsan 112 situation room, Song Byung-joo.

Appearing at the Seoul Western District Court on Friday morning, Lee again offered apologies while vowing to fully cooperate in the court’s deliberation on the warrant, which may be decided on as early as Friday night.

The deliberation comes after a special police team investigating the Itaewon crowd crush made the warrant request on Tuesday, 15 days after the Seoul court dismissed the team’s initial request for warrants for the pair.

Lee is suspected of professional negligence resulting in death and fabricating official documents while Song is accused of failing to swiftly and appropriately handle emergency calls on the night of the tragedy that claimed 158 lives.

In requesting an arrest warrant the second time around, the probe team added a charge against Lee of fabricating official documents and using them.

Investigators believe the former chief failed to correct a fabricated report on the crowd crush stating that he had arrived at the scene 48 minutes earlier than his actual arrival time even after personally reviewing the document.

Court deliberations over arrest warrants requests for two senior officials of the Yongsan District Office, including its chief Park Hee-young, were postponed to Monday after Park tested positive for COVID-19.