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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

Vera FilesCrime & justice

The Maguindanao massacre case has been resolved.

Publisher’s rating: Needs context

Research from related reporting describes a case that had produced convictions but was not fully resolved in the courts. Davao Today reports that the trial court found 43 members of the Ampatuan family and their private army guilty of murdering 58 people, including 32 media workers, in the November 23, 2009 massacre. It also says the cases were still pending in appellate courts. The report says that, on November 24, the Center for International Law filed an urgent motion on behalf of 19 families asking the Court of Appeals to resolve the Ampatuan clan’s pending appeals “without further delay.” That account supports a distinction between convictions at trial and final resolution of the appeals: as described in this reporting, families were still seeking a decision from the appellate court. The excerpt does not establish what happened to those appeals afterward.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturCrime & justice

Die Justizvollzugsanstalt in Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel führt die 2G-Regel ein. Daher müssen Menschen, die weder geimpft noch genesen sind, das Gelände unverzüglich verlassen.

Publisher’s rating: Der Artikel stammt von der Satire-Seite «Der Postillon».

The claim concerns a purported 2G rule at the Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel prison: people who were neither vaccinated nor recovered would have to leave the grounds immediately. The review identifies the circulated Facebook item as a screenshot of an article making that claim, rather than an official prison announcement. It says the underlying article was published by the satirical site Der Postillon on 10 September 2021 and that its information was not real. S1 quotes the article’s title as “Wer ungeimpft ist, fliegt raus: Erste Justizvollzugsanstalt führt 2G-Regel ein” and states that “Die Informationen darin sind jedoch nicht echt.” The review points to the site’s own FAQ, which says that everything published there is satire and made up. It also explains why the screenshot could mislead: it did not show an obvious indication that the item was satire, and no link to the article accompanied the post. The only source clue visible in the screenshot was “dpo,” which the review identifies as pointing to a Postillon article. Thus the claim arose from satirical content presented in a screenshot, not from evidence of a real change to prison access rules.

Factcrescendo Sri LankaCrime & justice

CCTV Footage Of A Burglary In Sri Lanka

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The video was shared with a warning that a trained gang was robbing homes in Ratmalana, Sri Lanka. It showed men opening a tap outside a house, hiding, and attacking a resident when he came out to shut it. The scenes looked like CCTV footage, but the review found they were staged: a line in the video said “recreated video for awareness,” and the publisher reported that the attacker appeared to be acting rather than actually striking the resident. To check whether the footage showed a real Ratmalana burglary, the publisher searched Sri Lankan mainstream media and contacted the Mount Lavinia Police station, which covers the area. It reported finding no matching media account and said police confirmed there had been no recent reports of such a burglary and gang. The review then used reverse-image searches on video keyframes to trace the clip to an earlier Malayalam-language video and identify its creator. The creator, Ashraf, a karate and self-defense trainer from Kasaragod, Kerala, said he made the video to raise awareness about robbers’ tactics. The review says the recreation was filmed at his own house and drew on a real case in Kannur, Kerala: a 74-year-old woman living alone was victimized, but the footage was not from that incident. The review therefore distinguishes the real event that inspired the reenactment from the false claim that the clip documented a burglary in Sri Lanka.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaCrime & justice

FACT CHECK: රත්මලානේ සිදුවූ මංකොල්ලකෑමක CCTV දර්ශන?

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The claim concerns a video shared as CCTV footage of an armed gang robbing homes in Ratmalana. The review also describes posts attributing the same footage to Rajagiriya. It reports that searches found no matching recent news coverage or broadcast, and that police at the stations responsible for Ratmalana and Rajagiriya said they had no recent report of such an incident or of armed groups carrying out the described robberies. These checks address whether the clip documented a recent Sri Lankan crime, rather than establishing that no robbery of any kind had occurred.

dpaCrime & justice

Une centaine de bagarres, neuf disparitions, quatre morts et une dizaine de plaintes concernant des agressions sexuelles cette semaine dans le Carré à Liège.

Publisher’s rating: Ces allégations ont été démenties par la police de Liège, qui a tenu à rétablir les faits face aux nombreux partages.

The claim came from a circulating photo purporting to give a weekly tally for the Carré, Liège’s nightlife district. The figures alleged nine disappearances, four deaths—including two murders—more than 100 fights, and around ten sexual-assault complaints. The review reports that Liège police publicly rejected the claims on 18 October and addressed the incidents that may have been distorted or exaggerated: “La photo qui circule sur Facebook prétend présenter le « bilan de cette semaine dans le Carré ».” It adds that police “a prévenu sur sa page Facebook qu’il s’agissait de fausses informations, et les a « fermement » démenties.” The account distinguishes real incidents from the much larger or more serious claims in the photo. Police said they had arrested three suspects about ten days earlier over abductions near the Carré, but all victims were safe. On the alleged deaths, police reported one natural-cause death near the district and said there had been no murder there. The review also describes an assault involving scissors: three suspects were arrested after two people were injured, but the victims were safe. Its account states: “Toutes les victimes sont saines et sauves” and quotes police saying, “Il n’y a eu AUCUN meurtre dans le Carré !” For sexual violence, police had recorded one sexual-abuse incident since September and arrested the perpetrator, rather than the approximately ten complaints claimed in the photo. The review also notes RTBF’s separate reporting of two police reports for indecent assault and one for harassment, but none for rape. These details support rejecting the photo’s sweeping tally while preserving the distinction between the specific incidents reported and the allegations circulating online. The police acknowledged that recent events were violent and had increased insecurity concerns, and said they had strengthened patrols in the area.