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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

দাবী কৰা হৈছে যে কৰ্ণাটক উচ্চ ন্যায়ালয়ে আৰক্ষীক জাৰি কৰা নিৰ্দেশনাৰ পিছত, আৰক্ষীয়ে লকডাউন উলংঘনকাৰীসকলক ফুলৰ মালা পিন্ধাই আৰতি কৰিবলৈ লয় আৰু তেওঁলোকক যাবলৈ অনুমতি দিয়ে।

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

Deutsche Presse-AgenturCrime & justice

Die Grünen-Politikerin Petra Klamm-Rothberger sagte den Satz: "In der Heimat des Täters werden vergewaltigte Frauen zum Tode verurteilt. Deshalb musste er sie nach der Vergewaltigung töten. Für diese kulturellen Unterschiede müssen wir Verständnis haben."

Publisher’s rating: Die Behauptung, die Grünen-Politikerin Petra Klamm-Rothberger hätte die Tat verteidigt, ist falsch. Eine Politikerin mit diesem Namen existiert nicht.

The review examines a social-media claim attributing a quotation about the murder of student Maria L. to Green politician Petra Klamm-Rothberger. The circulated quote says that the killer “had to” kill her after raping her and calls for understanding of cultural differences. The review’s central finding is that the attribution is false: it states that no Green politician by that name exists. To check the identity, the review reports that a Google search showed there was no Green politician named Petra Klamm-Rothberger. It also points to a Facebook page for the supposedly named politician that explicitly identifies itself as a fake. These findings address the attribution directly: the person presented as a politician is fictional, so the quotation is not evidence of a real Green politician defending the murder. The review adds that the fabricated statement had circulated for several years and that Mimikama fact-checkers had examined the Klamm-Rothberger fake in 2018. It does not provide evidence that a real politician made the quoted statement.

FACTLYCrime & justice

‘యోగీ ప్రభుత్వానికి చెడ్డపేరు తీసుకొచ్చే కుట్రతో గంగా తీరంలో పాతిపెట్టిన శవాలను తవ్వితీసి గంగానది లో వదిలేసిన నవీద్ అలాం అనే వ్యక్తిని అరెస్ట్ చేసిన పోలీసులు’

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

Vishvas NewsCrime & justice

Assam Police is torturing the public in the name of curfew.

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The claim accompanied a photo of a man collecting vegetables from the road and alleged that Assam Police had mistreated the public during the curfew. The review says the photo was shared on social media as a recent image from Assam’s curfew period, including in a post by Facebook user Kalpajit Gogoi on May 13, 2021. The review’s investigation found that the image was old and from West Bengal, rather than a depiction of Assam Police assaulting a vegetable seller.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturCrime & justice

Kinder auf dem Foto werden in Göppingen vermisst

Publisher’s rating: Die Kinder sind vermisst, doch Göppingen hat mit dem Fall nichts zu tun. Die Vermisstenstelle in Berlin kümmert sich.

The review examined a social-media claim that a boy and a girl shown in a photo had gone missing in Göppingen, Baden-Württemberg. It reports that the photo was posted around May 11, 2021, with that claim. The investigation found that Göppingen was not where the case was being handled. To check the claim’s location, dpa asked the police authorities responsible for Göppingen and nearby Aalen. Both said they had no information about the children. Dpa then showed the photo to Berlin police. On May 20, a spokesperson said the case was known to Berlin police and was being handled by its missing persons unit; the police did not initially provide further details. The evidence therefore distinguishes the children’s reported missing-person case from the unsupported attribution of their disappearance to Göppingen.

dpaCrime & justice

Het Canadese Hooggerechtshof heeft een zaak voor misdaden tegen de menselijkheid aanvaard.

Publisher’s rating: De beweringen zijn fout. Het gedeelde document werd ingediend bij een provinciale rechtbank. De zaak is nooit behandeld in het Canadese Hooggerechtshof.

The claim concerned a document circulating on social media that was said to show Canada’s Supreme Court had accepted a case for crimes against humanity, presented by Reiner Fuellmich, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Daloris Cahill. The review checked what court the document named and whether the case had reached the national Supreme Court. It found that the filing was made in Ontario’s Superior Court, not the Supreme Court of Canada: “Het gaat om een zaak die werd ingediend bij het Superior Court in Ontario, een provincie van Canada.” The review also reports that the Supreme Court of Canada told AFP it did not know of the case, and that the Ontario case was dismissed: “Aan AFP, die een gelijkaardig onderwerp onderzochten, bevestigt het Canadese Hooggerechtshof ook dat ze deze zaak niet kennen. Ook zou de zaak in Ontario zijn afgewezen.” These findings do not support the claim that the Supreme Court accepted or heard the case. The court names are not interchangeable. The review describes Ontario’s Superior Court as a provincial court and says it is a different institution from the Supreme Court, Canada’s highest judicial level. It also notes that the three people named in the social-media claim do not appear in the document; instead, the document came from lawyer Michael Swinwood. The claimed involvement of those presenters is therefore not established by the filing.

Vishvas NewsCrime & justice

সোশ্যাল মিডিয়ায় একটি ভিডিও ভাইরাল হচ্ছে যাতে কিছু লোককে একজন মহিলাকে তুলে নিয়ে যেতে দেখা যাচ্ছে। পোস্টটি নিয়ে ব্যবহারকারী দাবি করছেন যে ঘটনাটি পশ্চিমবঙ্গের পিংগালার।

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaCrime & justice

FACT CHECK: පාතාල කල්ලි සාමාජිකයන්ගේ මරණ වලට ජ.වි.පෙ බැනර් ගැහුවද?

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The review examined social-media posts suggesting that the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) had made banners commemorating underworld figures who died. One post attributed a poster to the party in connection with Urujuwa, identified in the article as Mambulgala Dineth Melan Mambula. Another suggested that the JVP had created a memorial banner for Kosgoda Tharaka. The review says police shot Urujuwa and that Tharaka died from police gunfire during an operation while in police custody; it does not provide dates for those events in the supplied excerpt. [S1: “ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ විසින් මෙම මරණය සඳහා පෝස්ටරයක් නිර්මාණය කළ බවට හැඟවෙන පරිදි ‘ඌරුජුවා’ගේ ඡායාරූපයක් සහිත පෝස්ටරයක් සමාජ මාධ්‍ය වෙත එක් කර තිබුණා.”; “සංවිධානාත්මක අපරාධ කල්ලි සාමාජිකයෙක් වන ධර්මකීර්ති තාරක පෙරේරා විජේසේකර නොහොත් ‘කොස්ගොඩ තාරක’ පොලිස් අත්අඩංගුවේ සිටිය දී සිදුකළ මෙහෙයුමක් අතරතුර පොලිස් වෙඩි පහරින් පසුගියදා ජීවිතක්ෂයට පත්වුනා.”] To check the posts, the article says it compared the edited banners with images from news reports and referred to an earlier investigation of a similar poster attributed to the JVP after Makandure Madush’s death. It also reports that the JVP media unit said its official office had not made a banner for Tharaka and described the posts attributing one to the party as fabricated and baseless. The supplied excerpt does not give equivalent direct confirmation from the party about the Urujuwa poster, so the evidence presented is not identical for both cases. [S1: “මීට පෙරද මෙම පොස්ටර් ආකෘතියම සංස්කරණය කරමින් මාකඳුර මදූෂ්ගේ මරණයෙන් පසුවද ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ විසින් පෝස්ටරයක් නිර්මාණය කළ බවට සමාජ මාධ්‍ය ඔස්සේ පළ වූ සටහන් සම්බන්ධයෙන් අප කළ විමර්ශනය මෙතනින්. සංස්කරණය කරන ලද පෝස්ටර්වල සංසන්දනය පහතින්.”; “එලෙස ජීවිතක්ෂයට පත් ‘කොස්ගොඩ තාරක’ වෙනුවෙන් ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ නිල කාර්යාලය විසින් කිසිඳු බැනරයක් නිර්මාණය කළ නැති බවත් එසේ ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ විසින් නිර්මාණය කල බැනරයක් බවට ජනතාව නොමඟ යවමින් සකසන ලද සටහන් ව්‍යාජ හා පදනම් විරහිත බවට ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණේ මාධ්‍යාංශය සඳහන් කර සිටියා.”] The article’s conclusion is that such false posts were circulated to mislead people and discredit the JVP. That conclusion is supported in the excerpt by its description of the poster comparisons and the party media unit’s denial concerning Tharaka; the underlying comparison images and linked reports are not included here for independent inspection. [S1: “ඒ අනුව සඳහන් කළ හැක්කේ, ජනතා විමුක්ති පෙරමුණ විසින් කළ බවට දැක්වෙන මෙවන් අසත්‍ය සටහන් ජනතාව නොමග යැවීමට හා එම පෙරමුණ අපකීර්තියට පත් කිරීම සඳහා මෙලෙස සමාජ මාධ්‍ය වෙතට මුදා හැර ඇති බවයි.”]

Fact CrescendoCrime & justice

Claim: Misinformation that Ragothaman was worked as director of CBI

Publisher’s rating: Partly False

The review examines reports and social-media posts that described the late CBI officer Ragothaman as a former CBI director. It reports that a Dinamalar Facebook post and a widely shared Sun News graphic used that description. The review also notes that Sun News’s edited information showed the graphic had first carried the director claim and was later changed to say he was a former CBI officer; an older version continued to circulate. The review’s conclusion is that Ragothaman did not serve as director, so describing him that way was incorrect. To check the claim, the investigators compared accounts of Ragothaman’s career with the CBI’s director list. They report that news coverage described him as a retired CBI superintendent of police, who joined the agency in 1968 and retired in 2006. They then checked the agency’s list of directors, which, according to the review, names Vijay Shankar as director from 2005 to 2008 and does not include Ragothaman. The distinction matters: the review identifies him as a former CBI officer, not a former director. The review says Dinamalar’s website used the more accurate description, “former CBI officer,” while its Facebook post retained the director claim. It attributes continued circulation of the inaccurate version to the failure to update social-media posts after the correction. The evidence presented therefore addresses both the career claim and how the misleading description appeared and persisted; it does not support treating Ragothaman’s CBI service itself as fabricated.