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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Crime & justice fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about crime & justice. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

6,836 published reviews in this topic

Factcrescendo Sri LankaCrime & justice

A Statement Issued By The UN Regarding Organ Trafficking In Middle East Region!

Publisher’s rating: False

The review investigated a WhatsApp forward circulating in Sri Lanka that presented a purported “UNITED NATIONS ALERT.” It claimed that a booming Middle East black market for organs was linked to fake overseas job agencies, which allegedly lured applicants abroad and killed them for their body parts. The review’s conclusion is that the UN did not issue the claimed warning about such a scheme targeting prospective foreign workers. To check the message’s attribution, the publisher tried the UNODC web address included in the forward and found that it returned a 404 error. It also checked archived versions of that address and searched official UN sites using relevant keywords; it reported finding no associated UN warning. The review further reports that UNODC Pakistan told AFP the message did not originate from UNODC and contained outdated information unrelated to its current activities. The review also describes a related claim circulating in Nigeria, in which an International Organization for Migration official was said to have warned Nigerians about organ trafficking. According to the review, that official told the BBC he had not made the statement and that the social-media posts were fake. The review distinguishes this from human trafficking: it says the official described helping hundreds of Nigerians who had been victims of human trafficking, but not organ-transplant scams. Thus, the evidence presented challenges the message’s claimed UN attribution and its specific organ-harvesting warning; it does not deny the separate human-trafficking cases mentioned in the reporting.

dpaCrime & justice

Deze burgemeester pakt kinderpornografie aan in scholen.

Publisher’s rating: Het boek dat Shubert aanklaagde was geen kinderporno. Het bevatte geen beelden, enkel schrijfopdrachten en werd alleen in een keuzevak voor laatstejaars gebruikt. De rechter waar hij het over heeft, reageerde in haar rol als bezorgde moeder op het voorval, en niet in haar rol als rechter. De burgemeester van Hudson, Ohio heeft geen enkele zeggenschap over de onderwijsraad en geen enkele strafrechtelijke bevoegdheid in zijn capaciteit van burgemeester.

The claim refers to Hudson, Ohio mayor Craig Shubert’s September 13, 2021, intervention before the local school board. He accused teachers of distributing child pornography to students, said a judge had confirmed that characterization, and presented the board with a choice between resigning and being prosecuted. The footage was from a school-board meeting; the review says Shubert’s remarks appear from 2:15:43 in the recording. The dispute centered on *642 Things to Write About*, used in a special program for final-year students taking university-level courses. The review describes it as a book of writing prompts and blank pages, with no photographs or other images. Parents had complained that some prompts were unsuitable for minors, but the review says the book did not meet the legal definition of child pornography. It reports that an Akron law professor and a local prosecutor who examined the incident supported that distinction. The review also addresses the supposed judicial confirmation and Shubert’s threat. The judge said she had reacted as a concerned mother, not in her judicial capacity; she was a domestic-relations judge and said she would not handle such a case. The mayor, meanwhile, had no authority over the school board or criminal-prosecution powers in his role, which the review describes as ceremonial. Thus, the evidence concerns an allegation and a threat made by the mayor, not a substantiated finding that child pornography was present in schools.

LupaCrime & justice

“💣💣💣AEROPORTO DE ARACATI VIVEU DIA DE TENSÃO! NO MAIS ABSOLUTO SIGILO, FERNANDINHO BEIRA-MAR FOI TRANSFERIDO DO PRESÍDIO FEDERAL DE MOSSORÓ. Fernandinho Beira-mar é um dos suspeitos de ordenar aos ataques ao estado do RN. A visita de Dino, (ministro da justiça ⚖) aos gerentes do tráfico no Rio já surtiram efeitos. Lula e Dino atenderam a um pedido pessoal de Beira Mar e o mesmo já foi transferido para uma penitenciária do Rio em local ainda não divulgado. Lula mais uma vez mostrando que está em total apoio e alinhado com a criminalidade. FAZUELI”

Publisher’s rating: Falso

El Detector / Univision NoticiasCrime & justice

Tres fotos muestran a Donald Trump siendo perseguido por la policía para ser detenido.

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerns three images circulating on Facebook that appeared to show Donald Trump being pursued and detained by police amid speculation about a possible indictment in the Stormy Daniels case. The review says the images were generated with artificial intelligence, not photographs of an actual pursuit or arrest. It also reports that, when the review was published, Trump had not been detained; whether he would ultimately be indicted or arrested was unknown. The investigation traced one image to a Twitter post by Eliot Higgins. The review says Higgins identified himself as Bellingcat’s founder and creative director, and that he described making the arrest images while waiting for Trump’s arrest. Asked what tool he used, Higgins answered “Midjourney v5.” This provides direct provenance for at least one of the three images, rather than relying solely on their appearance. For visual checks, the review describes apparent image-generation errors in all three pictures. In one, a police officer’s hand appears to have four fingers, while Trump’s head and a police baton also appear visually unnatural. In the image portraying Trump running, his right foot and hand look unreal, an officer’s hand is similarly flawed, and another officer’s leg is in an odd position. In the remaining image, Trump’s left hand is much smaller than his right despite their similar position and distance from the camera, and part of his hair falls in an unnatural straight line. Together with Higgins’s attribution, these observations support the review’s conclusion that the images do not document a real police pursuit and detention.

The Dispatch Fact CheckCrime & justice

Donald Trump says he will be arrested by the Manhattan district attorney

Publisher’s rating: True

The review examines claims that Donald Trump had predicted his own arrest. It says Trump made the prediction in social media posts published March 18, specifying Tuesday, March 21, and states that he had not been arrested at the time the review was written. This directly supports the claim that he said he would be arrested, while distinguishing the prediction from an arrest actually occurring. The excerpt identifies the posts’ publication date but does not reproduce them or describe any independent verification method.

Factcheck Lab 事實查核實驗室Crime & justice

一名美國老翁闖入素食餐廳後，以生牛扒抽打餐廳客人的臉頰

Publisher’s rating: 錯誤

The claim is that an elderly American man entered a vegan restaurant and struck diners in the face with raw steaks. Factcheck Lab’s review examined a Facebook post making that allegation, which it says was published on March 9, 2023, by the page 「作者」. The post supplied a screenshot but did not identify its source. The review also notes that the same post appeared on the page’s Instagram account and that a nearly identical version was found in an online forum. To trace the story, the review searched for wording from the post and for the beginning of the screenshot’s headline. It found a matching article on Daily News Reported, dated March 8, 2023, and reports that the headline, image, byline and mobile-page layout matched the screenshot. The site’s own About Us description identified it as a fictional satirical newspaper and comedy site, stating that, except for satire about public figures, its articles use fictional names. This establishes that the post’s apparent news source presented the restaurant attack as fiction, rather than as a verified incident. The review also searched for earlier coverage of the distinctive steak-slapping allegation, restricting results to material before the Daily News Reported article. It reports finding no earlier independent source: search results that appeared older led to pages reposting screenshots from that site. On this evidence, the review concluded that the Facebook post’s allegation was not credible. Its finding concerns the provenance and fictional nature of the circulated story; the excerpts do not describe independent verification of every detail in the post.

FACTLYCrime & justice

Asad Ahmed, one of the accused in the Umesh Pal’s murder case has been arrested

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a Republic Bharat news report shared on social media that said Asad Ahmed, accused in the Umesh Pal murder case, had been arrested. FACTLY’s review distinguishes Asad from Qayum Ansari: it reports that Asad had not been arrested, while Ansari was arrested in Nepal on 16 March 2023 for allegedly helping Asad and other shooters escape there. To check the circulating report, FACTLY says it searched the internet using relevant keywords and located the original video on Republic Bharat’s YouTube channel, uploaded on 17 March 2023. The review says that report placed Asad’s whereabouts in Nepal and described the Special Taskforce Police as trying to apprehend him and another accused, Ghulam. That account indicates an effort to locate and arrest Asad, not a completed arrest. The review’s conclusion rests on this distinction: Ansari’s arrest was not Asad’s arrest. Its account of the original report and the separate arrest in Nepal therefore does not support the claim that Asad had already been taken into custody.