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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

Vishvas NewsCrime & justice

এই পোষ্টটোত দাবী কৰা হৈছে যে অসম আৰক্ষীয়ে গুৱাহাটীত সান্ধ্য আইন চলি থকা সময়ছোৱাত সান্ধ্যভ্ৰমণৰ বাবে ওলাই অহা একাংশ লোকক চাৰিখন বাছত তুলি লৈ বিমানবন্দৰ (আজাৰা) ৰ কাষত এৰি দিছে।

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

FACTLYCrime & justice

Photo of Afghanistan Ambassador’s daughter who was kidnapped and tortured in Pakistan

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The post paired a photograph with the claim that it showed Silsila Alikhil, daughter of Afghanistan’s ambassador to Pakistan, who had been kidnapped and tortured in Islamabad. The review separates the real kidnapping from the identity of the person in the circulated image: it says the attack on Silsila did occur, but the photograph was of Pakistani transgender activist Gul Chahat, not Silsila. The photo’s identification is therefore the key issue in assessing the post. [S1: “While it is true that Afghanistan Ambassador Najib Alikhil’s daughter was kidnapped and tortured by unknown assailants in Islamabad (Pakistan), the photo shared in the post is not of Silsila Alikhil, Najib Alikhil’s daughter. The photo shows Pakistan transgender activist Gul Chahat.”] To identify the woman, the review reports conducting a reverse-image search. It says similar visuals appeared in YouTube videos whose users identified the woman as Gul Chahat, and that further searches found similar photos on her Facebook page. The review also notes that on 16 July 2021, Gul Chahat posted a video discussing the injuries on her face and saying she faced life threats. These checks support the review’s identification of the photo; the excerpt does not establish that the injuries shown were caused by Silsila’s kidnapping. [S1: “On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, similar visuals of the woman were found in the videos uploaded by few users on YouTube. They can be seen here and here. These users mentioned the woman as a popular TikTok star, Gul Chahat. When we searched for more details of the woman using these keywords, we found similar photos posted on the Facebook page of Gul Chahat. On 16 July 2021, Gul Chahat posted a video explaining the cause of injuries on her face.”] The review places the kidnapping in Islamabad on 16 July 2021 and says Afghanistan’s ambassador, Najibullah Alikhil, later tweeted a photograph of his daughter, explaining that an unrelated person’s image had been wrongly shared as hers. It also reports that Afghanistan recalled the ambassador and senior diplomats to Kabul after the incident. Thus, the real kidnapping and the misidentified photograph are distinct parts of the story. [S1: “This incident took place on 16 July 2021. Najibullah Alikhil, the Afghanistan Ambassador to Pakistan had condemned this inhuman act on his daughter. Following this incident, the Afghanistan Government called back the Afghanistan Ambassador and all Senior Diplomats in Pakistan to Kabul.”]

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaCrime & justice

FACT CHECK: අපයෝජනයට ලක්වූ 15 හැවිරිදි දැරියගේ මවට පාඨලීගෙන් දුරකතන ඇමතුම් 143ක් ?

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The claim concerned Patali Champika Ranawaka and the mother of the 15-year-old girl in the case involving the online sale and abuse of the girl. A Facebook post alleged that Ranawaka had called the mother 143 times within four months. The review reports asking the director of the Police Media Coordination Division whether the investigation had revealed those calls. His response, as reported by the publisher, was that no such fact had been uncovered: “අධ්‍යක්ෂකවරයා සඳහන් කළේ එවැනි කරුණක් සම්බන්ධයෙන් මෙතෙක් අනාවරණය නොවූ බවයි.” The review also describes the case investigation as being handled by the Children and Women’s Bureau. It says the bureau had submitted one year of phone-tower records for the girl’s phone and the phone of the alleged main broker to a Colombo Additional Magistrate. Those records are not described as showing calls between Ranawaka and the girl’s mother; the review instead says police had not uncovered evidence that Ranawaka called her. The account therefore does not substantiate the specific allegation of 143 calls. The review’s conclusion is limited to what had emerged from police inquiries at that point. It states that the claim of 143 calls in four months was false and misleading according to the inquiries conducted, citing the Police Media Coordination Division director’s response. It does not provide call records for Ranawaka and the mother or claim that the submitted phone records covered their phones.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaCrime & justice

FACT CHECK: 15 හැවිරිදි දැරිය අපයෝජනය කිරීමේ සිද්ධිය හේතුවෙන් අත්අඩංගුවට පත් වූ පුද්ගලයින්ගේ ලැයිස්තුව ඇත්තක් ද?

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The claim concerns a list circulated online that purported to name people arrested in connection with the sexual abuse and sale of a 15-year-old girl in Sri Lanka. The review says the list contained 50 names and that the post claimed about 40 people had been arrested, including people from politics, business, entertainment and religious life. Its investigation specifically assessed whether those named had in fact been arrested in this case, rather than whether the underlying case or arrests existed. The review describes the list as having originated in a report on lankalives.com and then spreading on social media. To check the list, the publisher says it asked a senior police officer in the Police Children and Women’s Bureau, which was conducting the investigation, about the circulating names. According to the review, the officer said police had not provided the media with a list of suspects’ names. She also said that although details of arrested people had been disclosed, their identities had not been publicly named, and that most people on the viral list were not people arrested in this case. The review reports the officer’s figure of 41 arrests at the time, contrasting that with the 50 names in the online report. The review also notes an important qualification: a small number of names on the list belonged to people who had actually been arrested, but the bureau would not identify which ones while its investigation continued. It adds that some names had been reported by mainstream media, while the majority were not reported there as arrestees in this case. Thus, the evidence described does not establish that every name was false; it shows that the list as a whole was unreliable and that most listed people had not been arrested in connection with the case.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaCrime & justice

FACT CHECK: 15 හැවිරිදි දැරිය ලිංගික කටයුතුවලට යොදා ගැනීම සම්බන්ධ ලැයිස්තුවේ කොටුවේ පොඩි නමත් ඇතුළත් ද? Police confirm that Kotuwe Podi Theros name had not come up in Child Abuse investigation

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The review examined social-media posts alleging that Kotuwe Podi Thero was among those connected to the sexual exploitation of a 15-year-old girl and that the investigation was being stopped. It describes the posts as making claims about a list of alleged perpetrators and an order to halt arrests. The key question was whether the monk’s name had actually surfaced in the investigation, not whether the case itself was under investigation. The review says it asked the director of the Police Bureau for the Prevention of Abuse of Children and Women about the allegation. According to the review, the director said reports linking the monk to the case were false and that, up to that point, no information connecting him to it had emerged. The review also says it contacted the monk, who denied the allegations and said he had gone to the Criminal Investigation Department to complain about them. These accounts directly address the claim that his name appeared in the case-related list; they do not establish that every aspect of the broader investigation had concluded. The review separately checked the claim that the investigation had been halted. It reports that the police spokesperson said investigations were continuing and that reports suggesting they had stopped were false. Its conclusion is therefore that the social-media allegations about the monk’s involvement were false, and that there was no reported order to stop the investigation.

Boatos.orgCrime & justice

Traficantes da Venezuela matam casal que reclamou de comida distribuída pelo governo

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim links two things: an alleged government-backed food distribution by traffickers in Venezuela, and a video said to show a couple killed after complaining about not receiving food. The review says the circulated audio supplied that account, but reports finding no evidence that traffickers distribute food on the government’s orders. It also notes that the audio offered no reliable source for its accusation. The review describes the video as showing a man arguing with three others before two draw a gun and shoot him; women in the foreground flee, and one appears to be hit. It says the footage is cut off, and that the accompanying audio identifies the scene as Venezuela and ties it to the alleged food dispute. Those details explain why the clip could appear to support the claim, but the review reports that its investigation found a different origin and purpose. According to the review, AFP Checamos traced the images to a staged sermon and dramatization in Manatí, Puerto Rico, in 2015. The complete video, it says, shows a pastor and other actors dressed as “death” arriving at the scene. Thus, the review’s account is that the video was neither recorded in Venezuela nor footage of a real killing; it does not depict the alleged couple or food-related dispute.