Skip to main content

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

Vera FilesCrime & justice

The International Criminal Court has no jurisdiction to investigate drug-related killings in the Philippines. It is intruding into the country's internal matters and is a threat to Philippine sovereignty.

Publisher’s rating: Needs context

Research from related reporting bears directly on whether the ICC can investigate alleged crimes connected to the Philippines’ drug war. A May 14, 2026 report says Senator Ronald dela Rosa, a former national police chief who oversaw the crackdown, was wanted for crimes against humanity, as was former president Rodrigo Duterte. The report describes the ICC’s position: “The court says it can investigate crimes committed prior to a country's withdrawal.” That qualification is important to the claim that withdrawal left the ICC with no jurisdiction. The same report says the Philippines withdrew from the court in 2018 and that dela Rosa argued it no longer had jurisdiction. It therefore documents both the objection and the ICC’s stated basis for continuing to investigate crimes allegedly committed before withdrawal. The excerpt does not establish the outcome of that legal dispute or independently resolve the court’s jurisdiction. The report links the case to the drug-war crackdown, saying “thousands of alleged drug dealers were slain,” while also noting that police rejected accusations of systematic murders and cover-ups and said those killed had been armed and resisted arrest. It does not assess whether ICC action is an intrusion into internal affairs or a threat to sovereignty, so it cannot settle that separate part of the claim.

Vera FilesCrime & justice

Ang International Criminal Court ay walang hurisdiksyon upang imbestigahan ang mga pagpatay na may kaugnayan sa droga sa Pilipinas. Nanghihimasok ito sa mga panloob na usapin ng bansa at banta sa soberanya ng Pilipinas.

Publisher’s rating: Kailangan ng konteksto

Related reporting addresses the jurisdiction dispute in the ICC case concerning alleged crimes against humanity connected to Rodrigo Duterte’s administration’s war on drugs. It reports that Duterte’s legal team challenged the ICC’s jurisdiction and sought to overturn an earlier decision rejecting that challenge. The reporting therefore concerns the same case and legal issue as the claim, rather than a different ICC investigation. [S2: “Hiniling ng legal team ni Duterte na baligtarin ang naturang desisyon at igiit na walang legal na batayan ang pagpapatuloy ng mga paglilitis laban sa dating pangulo.”] The later account reports that the ICC Appeals Chamber rejected all four grounds of Duterte’s appeal and confirmed the challenged decision. It also recounts the earlier chamber’s reasoning: the prosecution had begun its preliminary examination before the Philippines formally notified the ICC of its withdrawal from the Rome Statute. These reported rulings conflict with the categorical assertion that the ICC has no jurisdiction in this case, although the excerpts do not provide the full legal reasoning or resolve every possible argument about jurisdiction. [S2: “The Appeals Chamber, by majority… has rejected all four grounds of appeal.”] [S2: “Matatandaan na nauna nang tinanggihan ng ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I ang pagtutol ni Duterte sa hurisdiksyon nito, na nagsasabing nagsimula ang paunang pagsusuri ng prosekusyon bago pa ang pormal na abiso ng Pilipinas sa pag-alis nito mula sa Statute.”] The sovereignty aspect appears in related reporting as an objection to Marcos’s decision to allow Duterte’s arrest and transfer to the ICC in the Netherlands. That report attributes the characterization of the move as an attack on Philippine sovereignty to some legal experts; it does not establish that the ICC lacks jurisdiction. Read together, the excerpts distinguish a political or legal objection framed in terms of sovereignty from the reported chamber decisions upholding jurisdiction in Duterte’s case. [S4: “Inilarawan ng ilang legal na eksperto ang hakbang ni Marcos bilang isang natatanging pag-atake sa soberanya ng Pilipinas, at iginiit na pinahina nito ang matagal nang posisyon ng bansa na tumatanggi sa hurisdiksyon ng ICC.”]

Vera FilesCrime & justice

Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, former chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), is an accused in the case involving drug-related killings under investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Publisher’s rating: False

Related reporting describes later developments concerning Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa and the ICC case. A November 2025 report said the Department of Justice was still checking reports of an ICC arrest warrant and had not received official communication or a copy. It also attributed the initial public account of a warrant to Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla, while noting that the alleged offenses were linked to Duterte’s anti-drug campaign. This documents that a warrant was being reported, not that the DOJ had independently verified it at that point. [S5] A September 2026 report stated more definitively that Dela Rosa was “the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court” in a crimes-against-humanity case involving killings during Duterte’s drug war. It also reported that the DOJ had a pending obstruction complaint against people alleged to have helped him avoid arrest. These later reports connect Dela Rosa to the same case and indicate that his reported legal status developed after the 2023 review. They do not establish that he was already an accused in that case when the claim was reviewed. [S6]

dpaCrime & justice

Das Video zeigt einen Angriff auf Fahrgäste an einem Bahnsteig in Berlin.

Publisher’s rating: Der Übergriff fand 2021 am Dubliner Bahnhof Howth Junction statt und nicht in Berlin. Der jugendliche Täter wurde zu einer Bewährungsstrafe verurteilt.

The claim concerns a video of youths assaulting young women on a station platform, including one woman falling between a train and the platform edge. The review says the video was presented on social media as surveillance footage from a Berlin station, but identifies the incident as having occurred in Ireland. The location matters: the review does not dispute that an assault happened, but rejects Berlin as its setting. To assess the location, the review compares features visible in the footage with train and station features. It describes a green train with a yellow stripe below the windows, contrasting that appearance with the colors of Berlin’s U-Bahn, S-Bahn and Deutsche Bahn regional trains. It says the DART trains serving Dublin have the coloring visible in the video. The review also points to the curved track layout and a yellow platform marking as consistent with Howth Junction Station. The review places the incident at Howth Junction in April 2021. It reports that station surveillance footage showed a teenager with a bicycle crowding a young woman until she stumbled and fell into the gap between the stationary train and platform. The woman was pulled back onto the platform and suffered a concussion. The teenager was identified from the footage and received a twelve-month suspended sentence. Thus, the video depicts a real assault, but the evidence described in the review places it in Dublin, not Berlin.