Police Superintendent Park Gwan-cheon drew up the report that claimed the president’s brother, Park Ji-man, was tailed under orders from Chung Yoon-hoi, the prosecution said Wednesday.

The police officer is also thought to have given the report to an associate of Park Ji-man, who then gave it to the president’s brother. The report is said to be based on the accounts given by an informant, whose name has not been released the media.

The report, however, contains the names of the informant and the person who supposedly tailed Park Ji-man.

The police officer was taken into custody late Tuesday, and the prosecution plans to file for an arrest warrant on Thursday over his involvement in the leak of Cheong Wa Dae documents regarding Chung.

According to reports, the prosecution secured the report drawn up by the officer while digging for the source of the rumors that the president’s brother was followed under orders from Chung.

Chung, a former aide of President Park Geun-hye, is rumored to have meddled in state affairs and engaged in a power struggle with Park Ji-man.

The rumor about the president’s brother being followed surfaced in March when a local weekly current affairs magazine reported that his vehicle had been tailed by a motorcyclist, who said that he was acting under orders from Chung when confronted by the vehicle’s occupants. The article also claimed that Park Ji-man had obtained a written confession from the motorcyclist.

Chung denied the allegations and filed a complaint against the magazine.

Park, for his part, has since told the prosecution that the events described in the March news article were false, but that he had suspected that he was being followed.

However, with the president’s brother saying that he had reasons to believe that he was being followed, the prosecution had shifted the focus of the investigation to the document leak.

Superintendent Park was initially suspected of being the main culprit in the leak of Cheong Wa Dae intelligence reports concerning Chung.

He has since been cleared of direct involvement in giving the media access to the documents but now faces charges regarding the Act on the Management of Presidential Archives. He was taken into custody late Tuesday, and the prosecution plans to file for an arrest warrant on Thursday.

The officer is alleged to have removed a section of reports he drew up while he was assigned to Cheong Wa Dae. The prosecution suspects that the documents were then copied and provided to the media by police inspectors Choi and Han without Superintendent Park’s knowledge. Choi committed suicide after claiming innocence, while Han is said to have confessed to his part in the developments.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)