A North Korean defector acquitted of spying for Pyongyang filed a complaint against prosecutors and another defector for their alleged involvement in framing him, his lawyers said Thursday.

Yoo Woo-Seong, the 34-year-old defector who formerly held a Chinese nationality in the communist regime, was at the center of a high-profile forgery case in which Seoul’s main intelligence agency was found to have fabricated Chinese government documents to frame him.

Upholding a lower court ruling, a Seoul appeals court in April acquitted Yoo of carrying out espionage activities, citing the lack of credibility in the testimony of a witness.

Minbyun, a society of lawyers defending Yoo in the case, said it has lodged the complaint against two prosecutors and the North Korea defector surnamed Kim with the Seoul District Prosecutors’ Office.

“The two prosecutors handling the trials, including a 42-year-old senior prosecutor surnamed Lee, were fully aware of the forged evidence,” said Minbyun in a press release, further arguing that they even ordered National Intelligence Service agents to fabricate the immigration records.

“Kim also provided false testimony that Yoo is a spy being tempted by the reward,” said Minbyun.

Yoo was indicted on the charge of collecting detailed information on some 200 defectors in the South while he was working at the Seoul city government and relaying it to the North.

After a Seoul district court acquitted Yoo of espionage in August 2013, prosecutors appealed the verdict and submitted Chinese immigration records on Yoo’s visits to the North.

But some of the documents were later found to have been forged, and suspicions have since arisen that the NIS was involved in the fabrication.

Earlier this year, prosecutors announced the results of a two-month investigation into the scandal, concluding that the NIS fabricated the immigration records. But prosecutors said they found no evidence that higher-ranking officials, including then NIS chief Nam Jae-joon, were involved. (Yonhap)