National Assembly Speaker Park Hee-tae and former presidential aide Kim Hyo-jae have been indicted without detention over allegations of vote-buying in the ruling party’s leadership election in 2008.

This is the first time a serving National Assembly speaker has been indicted. Although Park announced on Feb. 13 that he would step down, his resignation has not been processed by the assembly.

In addition, Park’s chief secretary for policies Cho Jeong-man, who was in charge of the finances of Park’s campaign for the Grand National Party’s chairmanship, was also indicted.

Although Park denied any involvement in the scheme during 16 hours of questioning on Sunday, the investigators are said to have secured circumstantial evidence that indicates that he was aware of it.

However, investigators have so far failed to obtain testimony or evidence that Park gave instructions to bribe GNP officials.

The scandal broke out last month when Rep. Koh Seung-duk revealed that there was an attempt to bribe him before the Grand National Party’s chairmanship vote on July 3, 2008. The GNP has since changed its name to Saenuri Party following a series of scandals involving senior members.

Koh has alleged that he was given 3 million won ($2,670), which he returned, along with Park’s name card, days before the election, by a man who was working for Park’s campaign at that time.

Since then investigations revealed a wider vote-buying scheme that led back to Kim Hyo-jae, who served in a key post in Park’s campaign for GNP leadership.

An Byung-yong, head of a district chapter of the party, was allegedly instructed by Kim to hand over 20 million won to five members of district councils with instructions to bribe 30 party officials. In addition, the investigations have revealed that An obtained the cash from Kim’s office, and that Kim inquired of Koh about returning the 3 million won.

An has since been indicted and is currently under detention.

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