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Farmer Baek Nam-gi in May at his grandson’s second birthday party. (provided by Baek’s daughter)

The family of a man seriously injured after being struck by a police water cannon at a Nov. 14 rally on Seoul Plaza filed a complaint with prosecutors on Nov. 18 accusing the police of attempted murder.

The victim, 68-year-old farmer Baek Nam-gi, was protesting at a rally in central Seoul when he was struck. His family plan to bring preliminary charges against the police for the crime of professional negligence resulting in injury.

The indictment was filed with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office on Nov. 18 by 33 plaintiffs, including officials with the Korean Peasants’ League, Korean Catholic Farmers’ Movement, and other farmer’s groups and Baek’s 34-year-old daughter Doraji. It names Korea National Police Agency Commissioner General Kang Sin-myeong, Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency commissioner Goo Eun-su, and four officers, including the commander at the scene of the incident.

“Given that they could have reasonably predicted the risk to the victim’s life, the KNPA chief, SMPA commissioner, and squad leader who ordered the [water cannon] fire are guilty of attempted murder through gross negligence,” said Lee Jeong-il, an attorney with the group MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society, who is representing the plaintiffs.

Meanwhile, Konkuk University law professor Han Sang-hee resigned his seat on the police human rights committee to protest the excessive tactics used by police in response to the protest.

“I vehemently protest the excessive response by police and the acts of deadly harm used against farmer Baek Nam-gi at the public indignation rally,” Han wrote in a post on his Facebook page.

“I cannot find any further meaning in carrying out duties as a member of the police human rights committee, which has devolved into a pro forma, insincere organization,” he explained.

By Park Su-ji and Hwang Keum-bi, staff reporters

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