SEOUL, South Korea — A South Korean court on Monday sentenced the former police chief of a district of Seoul to three years in prison for a botched response to a deadly Halloween crowd crush in the capital’s Itaewon nightlife district in 2022.

Yongsan police station chief Lee Im-jae is the first senior police official to be convicted over the crush, which led to 159 deaths nearly two years ago.

Lee had failed to prepare for a mass Halloween gathering whose dangers he should have…