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Farmer Baek Nam-gi being blasted by a police water cannon during an anti-government rally in central Seoul

Family members of a farmer named Baek Nam-gi, 69, have filed a lawsuit against the South Korean government and the head of the National Police Agency, seeking 240 million won (US$207,000) in damages. Baek is in a coma after being blasted a police water cannon during a nationwide rally held last year.

On Mar. 22, a civic group called Lawyers for a Democratic Society (MINBYUN) and Baek’s 35-year-old daughter Doraji announced that they had filed a damages lawsuit at the Seoul Central District Court. Baek Doraji and four other family members are jointly suing six members of the police - including National Police Agency Commissioner General Kang Sin-myeong and former Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Commissioner Gu Eun-soo - in an attempt to receive compensation for their damages.

MINBYUN, which is providing the family members with legal representation, said that they might increase the damages sought during the lawsuit.

“It has already been 130 days since the incident, but no one has taken responsibility or apologized,” said Doraji during a press conference held at the MINBYUN office in the Seocho District of Seoul on Tuesday before she filed the lawsuit. “My family and I have had to take every possible recourse, including filing a petition with the Constitutional Court, filing a criminal complaint and filing a lawsuit for damages.”

“We intend to ask through the courts whether the police were protecting the public when they fired a water cannon at Baek for about 10 seconds,” said MINBYUN Secretary-General Cho Yeong-seon.

On Tuesday, MINBYUN also released to the press for the first time part of the video recording from a monitor inside the vehicle holding the water cannon that fired on Baek. MINBYUN acquired the footage by filing a request for preserving evidence with the Hongseong branch of Daejeon District Court and Gwangju District Court.

In the video footage, Baek, who is wearing a blue vest, can be seen fairly clearly being hit by the water cannon’s jet for about 10 seconds. The police had claimed that the monitor was too small and the image too fuzzy to see Baek and that the question of whether or not he could be seen was a value judgment.

“It is clear to anyone who sees this footage that the police knew that Baek Nam-ki was there and shot at him deliberately and that they continued to hit him after he was down. The footage also confirms the fact that the police did not obey the water cannon vehicle operation guidelines, which state that direct fire from the water cannon must be directed below the chest,” said Kim Su-yeong, a lawyer with MINBYUN.

By Park Su-ji, staff reporter

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