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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.

6,849 published reviews in this topic

FACTLYCrime & justice

Visuals of police arresting DU professor Ratan Lal, over his social media post related to Gyanvapi Shivling

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns a video presented as showing Delhi University professor Ratan Lal being arrested over a social media post about the reported discovery of a Shivling in Gyanvapi Mosque. The review distinguishes the fact of Lal’s arrest from the identity of the people shown in the circulating footage: it says Lal was arrested and later granted bail, but concludes that the video does not show his arrest. Its finding is that the footage instead depicts Chandigarh Police arresting lockdown violators in 2020. To check the video’s provenance, the review reports conducting a reverse image search. That search led to a tweet posted by Chandigarh’s Director General of Police on 25 April 2020, which shared the same visuals. The tweet described them as showing Chandigarh Police using a distinctive method to deal with non-cooperating COVID-19 suspects and curfew breakers. The review also notes that news articles reported the same footage as showing the arrest of lockdown violators. Thus, the misleading element is the reuse of older footage as if it documented Lal’s arrest. The review does not dispute that Lal was arrested; it says the arrest-related claim attached to these particular visuals is unsupported by the video’s earlier provenance.

Fact CrescendoCrime & justice

राजस्थान में कांग्रेस सरकार कानून व्यवस्था में पूरी तरह विफल हो चुकी नावां में कांग्रेस विधायक महेंद्र चौधरी के परिवार के लोग हत्यारे निकले। दूसरी ओर दलितो पर अत्याचार।”

Publisher’s rating: Partly False

فکت‌نامهCrime & justice

راستی‌آزمایی ویدیوی درگیری پلیس با شهروندان در لرستان

Publisher’s rating: ویدیویی که کتک‌خوردن یک پیرمرد در لرستان به‌دست پلیس و شلیک گلوله به سمت فردی دیگر توسط پلیس در یک درگیری خیابانی را نشان می‌دهد در شبکه‌های اجتماعی منتشر شده‌است. این درگیری خشن، برخلاف آنچه در روزهای پس از انتشار گفته شده، ربطی به اعتراضات اخیر مردم لرستان ندارد.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturCrime & justice

In Warschau stechen Flüchtlinge aus der Ukraine️ einen Polen zu Tode. Der Vorfall ereignete sich am 8. Mai gegen 4 Uhr morgens.

Publisher’s rating: Die Staatsanwaltschaft führt keine ukrainischen Tatverdächtigen.

The claim links refugees from Ukraine to the killing of a Polish man in Warsaw on May 8, around 4 a.m., and cites a video of the incident as evidence. The review identifies this as an allegation being used to spread disinformation; the excerpt does not independently establish the claimed time of 4 a.m. or describe an analysis of the video itself. It locates the investigation at Nowy Swiat 28, where Warsaw police were investigating a murder. The key evidence reported is a statement from a spokesperson for the Warsaw District Prosecutor’s Office to dpa on May 17, 2022: the material available to the office did not show that foreigners were involved. The spokesperson declined to comment on the current state of the investigation for investigative reasons. This is a qualified statement about the evidence then available, not a reported identification of the killer or a final account of the case. The review also reports that a search notice for a man connected with the case was published on May 12. It does not say that the man was Ukrainian, or that the notice established who committed the killing. Thus, the cited investigation did not support attributing the crime to Ukrainian refugees; the excerpt provides no further outcome of the police inquiry.

dpaCrime & justice

Ein Mitglied der Geschäftsführung des US-Pharmakonzerns Pfizer wurde verhaftet und wegen mehrfachen Betrugs angeklagt.

Publisher’s rating: Bei der Meldung handelt es sich um Satire. Sie stammt ursprünglich von der kanadischen Seite «Vancouver Times».

The allegation concerns Pfizer executive vice president Rady Johnson, who was said to have been arrested and charged with fraud. The review traces the claim to a screenshot circulating on Radio Patriot and says that the screenshot can indeed be found there. But Radio Patriot’s article identified the material as having been published by the Vancouver Times and marked there as satire. The review also notes that the Vancouver Times article itself repeated that it was satire. (S1: “Der Screenshot ist tatsächlich bei «Radio Patriot» zu finden. In dem Artikel wird direkt am Anfang darauf hingewiesen, dass er von der «Vancouver Times» publiziert und dort als Satire markiert worden sei.”) The underlying story said that thousands of documents proving the danger of the coronavirus vaccine had been found and that Johnson would be charged with fraud. The review describes those allegations as invented, rather than reporting them as established events. It says the Vancouver Times stated that it published the satirical item on 6 May 2022. (S1: “Im satirisch gemeinten und erfundenen Beitrag heißt es, ein Mitglied der Geschäftsführung (Executive Vice President) von Pfizer, Rady Johnson, sei angeblich verhaftet worden. Es seien Tausende Dokumente gefunden worden, die die Gefährlichkeit des Corona-Impfstoffs bewiesen. Johnson werde nun wegen Betrugs angeklagt.”; “Bei der «Vancouver Times» wurde der Satire-Beitrag laut dortigen Angaben am 6. Mai 2022 veröffentlicht.”) The key context is therefore the original article’s own labeling and provenance: the claim was repeated in a screenshot, but the cited material was presented as satire by its originating outlet, and the review says the story was invented. The review does not describe independent evidence of an arrest or prosecution; its account focuses on tracing the screenshot and identifying the source and framing of the story. (S1: “Als Quelle wird «Radio Patriot» angegeben.”; “In der Meldung selbst wird noch einmal darauf hingewiesen, dass es sich dabei um Satire handelt.”)

ChequeadoCrime & justice

No, este video no corresponde al momento del asesinato del fiscal paraguayo Marcelo Pecci

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerns a video circulated on Facebook and Twitter as footage of the killing of Paraguayan prosecutor Marcelo Pecci in Colombia. Chequeado reports that Pecci was attacked on May 10, 2022, on the Colombian island of Barú. His widow, Claudia Aguilera, who witnessed the attack, told El Tiempo that one assailant got off a jet ski and shot Pecci twice. The review explains that these reported circumstances could make the viral images seem plausible, but says they do not show the killing. Instead, the footage comes from the film *Sundown*. Chequeado points to part of the scene in the film’s official trailer, published in January of that year, and notes that the film’s plot summary on IMDb places the story in Mexico, not Colombia. The review also compares the viral clip’s apparent position in the film with its running time: it says the clip shows material from minute 35 of a video lasting 1 hour and 22 minutes, the same length as *Sundown*. Taken together, the reported trailer match, the film’s setting and the matching runtime support the conclusion that the clip is fictional movie footage, not a recording of Pecci’s murder. Chequeado also says Venezuelan fact-checking site EsPaja and AFP Factual verified the misinformation, though this excerpt does not describe their methods.

dpaCrime & justice

Pfizer VP Rady Johnson gearresteerd.

Publisher’s rating: Het artikel over de arrestatie van Rady Johnson is volgens de betreffende website satire. Zij voegden later een disclaimer toe aan het verhaal, om te verduidelijken dat het hier niet gaat om feitelijke informatie.

The claim arose from online posts saying that Rady Johnson, a Pfizer vice-president, had been arrested for fraud following the release of purported Pfizer documents. The review identifies the posts’ source as Vancouver Times: screenshots circulated from an English-language article published on 6 May 2022, which alleged that Johnson had been arrested and charged after the spread of a thousand supposedly revealing documents about Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine safety. The article itself was presented as satire, not as a report of an actual arrest. The review says Vancouver Times placed disclaimers above and below the story stating that it was satirical. It also notes that the site described itself on its About Us page as a source of satire. These details establish that the arrest allegation was part of a satirical story rather than verified news. The presentation was inconsistent, however. An archived version from the morning of 6 May still included satire warnings, but those warnings disappeared a few hours later; the category changed from “satire” to “America,” and a different sharing prompt replaced the lower disclaimer. That version remained online until at least the following evening. The review reports that the satire label returned on 8 May, alongside a post from Vancouver Times referring to the article as satirical and saying it had added disclaimers to prevent confusion. As evidence against an actual arrest, the review reports that it found no evidence Johnson had been arrested for fraud and that other legitimate news organizations had not reported such an event. It describes the false impression as enabled by the article’s temporary removal of its satire warnings, while documenting that Vancouver Times later restored the label and added disclaimers.

dpaCrime & justice

Ein Mitglied der Geschäftsführung des US-Pharmakonzerns Pfizer wurde festgenommen.

Publisher’s rating: Falsch. Die Meldung stammt von der kanadischen Satire-Seite «Vancouver Times».

The claim concerns a screenshot alleging that a member of Pfizer’s executive management had been arrested. The review identifies the person in the alleged story as Rady Johnson, an executive vice president at the US pharmaceutical company, and traces the screenshot to a Vancouver Times article dated 6 May 2022. The review describes that outlet as a satire site, rather than a source reporting a real arrest. (S1: “Der Screenshot stammt aus einer Meldung der «Vancouver Times» vom 6. Mai 2022.”) The alleged arrest story said that thousands of documents had been found proving the danger of the coronavirus vaccine and that Johnson would face fraud charges. The review states that these assertions appeared in a satirically intended, invented article; it also notes that the article itself reiterated that it was satire. Thus, the material presented as evidence of an actual arrest was a screenshot of a fictional satirical story. (S1: “Im satirisch gemeinten, erfundenen Beitrag heißt es, ein Mitglied der Geschäftsführung (Executive Vice President) von Pfizer, Rady Johnson, sei angeblich verhaftet worden.”; “In der Meldung selbst wird noch einmal darauf hingewiesen, dass es sich dabei um Satire handelt.”)