Prosecutors have concluded that a police superintendent who worked as an intelligence officer at Cheong Wa Dae fabricated the so-called “Chung Yoon-hoi documents” and delivered them to President Park Geun-hye’s brother under the instruction of his “direct superior” Cho Eung-cheon.

The investigators announced their findings in their interim reports Monday.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Cho, a former Cheong Wa Dae secretary for civil discipline, without detention on charges of leaking official secrets and violating the presidential records management law.

Cho, while serving at the presidential office in 2013 and early 2014, is suspected of ordering Park Gwan-cheon, the police officer who worked for him, to deliver 17 presidential documents to the president’s brother, Park Ji-man, officials said.

The leaked files included allegations that Chung colluded with presidential aides and meddled in state affairs by forming a secret group. Chung was Park’s chief of staff when she entered politics in the late 1990s. The allegations against Chung were false, the prosecution said, noting that they were compiled based on unverified information. Last week, officials has pressed four charges against the police officer Park.

The prosecution, however, failed to determine the motive for Park and Cho in delivering “the collection of rumors” to the president’s brother. “They seem to have wanted to consolidate their positions by using Park Ji-man,” said Yoo Sang-beom, senior prosecutor who led the investigation.

The prosecution has been investigating the document leak after a report by local daily Segye Ilbo claimed that Chung was meddling in state affairs, citing intelligence reports compiled within Cheong Wa Dae.

The reports were taken from Cheong Wa Dae by the police officer when he was assigned to return to Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency in February. The documents were then secretly copied by an intelligence officer surnamed Han at the police agency.

Han passed the documents to another officer surnamed Choi, who then gave them to a reporter at the Segye Ilbo, the prosecution said. The prosecution said it had also indicted Han without detention on charges of leaking official secrets, but dropped the charges against Choi, who died by suicide last month, two days after he was summoned by the prosecution.

The prosecution also concluded that the secret group that the Segye Ilbo claimed Chung had formed does not exist.

“We looked up surveillance footage and reservation lists of a Chinese restaurant in southern Seoul where the members were said to have gathered on a regular basis according to the Segye Ilbo. But the group didn’t exist” Yoo said.

Investigators also tracked call histories of Lee Jae-man, one of the three secretaries allegedly to be close to Chung. But found no clue that they were having the meeting. The prosecution said it would continue investigating the Segye Ilbo and would decide soon whether to press charges or not.

The prosecution’s decision to indict Cho and other police officers, infuriated the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy. The party’s floor leader Rep. Woo Yoon-keun said the prosecution investigated the case “under the guidelines given by Cheong Wa Dae and the president.” The party has been calling for an independent counsel’s investigation into the case, saying the prosecution omitted to disclose “the substance of the case.”

The party has urged prosecutors to reveal suspicious ties between Chung and the three incumbent secretaries at the presidential office.

The scandal, although evaluated by the prosecution as groundless, has dealt a heavy blow to President Park. Her approval ratings hit a nadir soon after the scandal broke out late last year.

Later in the afternoon, a Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters that the office would not release any statement on the prosecution’s reports on the investigation.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)