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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

Reynhard Sinaga, a convicted rapist in the United Kingdom, is now in the Philippines

Publisher’s rating: False

Related reporting from Tempo describes Reynhard Sinaga as serving his sentence in the United Kingdom and reports that Indonesian officials had not requested his repatriation as of October 2025. That later account supports that he remained in the UK at the time of that reporting, but it does not independently establish where he was when the claim was made in 2021. Tempo reported that Coordinating Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra said, “Until today, there has been no repatriation request,” and described Sinaga as “the convicted serial rapist serving his sentence in the United Kingdom.” The excerpt also says that in February 2025 the government had considered a repatriation request from Sinaga’s family. This later chronology does not resolve his location in 2021.

Pagella PoliticaCrime & justice

«Non possiamo dire che questo fenomeno conosca una diminuzione, e stiamo passando da una media di due giorni e mezzo tra un femminicidio e l’altro, a una media di un giorno. Ogni giorno una donna viene uccisa»

Publisher’s rating: Pinocchio andante

The claim was made by Isabella Rauti, a Fratelli d’Italia senator, in an interview published on 22 February. She argued that femicides in Italy were sharply increasing and that a woman was killed every day. The review compared this claim with figures in a 28 January 2021 report from the Central Directorate of Criminal Police on intentional homicides in Italy from 2017 to 2020, including killings linked to gender-based violence. The figures distinguish between all homicides, all female homicide victims, and women killed in a family or affective context—the category the review uses as a proxy for femicides while noting the absence of an internationally agreed definition. In 2020, there were 271 intentional homicides overall, 112 female victims, and 98 women killed in the family or affective context. For that last category, the corresponding totals were 96 in 2017, 111 in 2018, and 94 in 2019. The review therefore found no near-tripling: the 2020 figure was broadly in line with the preceding years. Those counts also contradict the claim’s daily rate. The review calculates that 98 such killings in 2020 amounted to about one every three and a half days—not one a day. Even counting all female homicide victims, 112 in the year, yields fewer than one every three days; all homicides together also fell well short of a daily average. Its conclusion is that the cited data do not support either the claimed sharp increase or the claimed rate.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturCrime & justice

Verbrechen an Kindern gehen vielen Menschen nahe. Die Emotionalität dieses Thema machen sich jedoch auch die Verbreiter von Verschwörungserzählungen zunutze, um ihre Mythen und falschen Informationen in Umlauf zu bringen. Ein aktuell kursierender Blogbeitrag verbreitet etwa eine Foto-Animation, auf der Menschen in einem unterirdischen Gewölbe zu sehen sind. In der Überschrift heißt es: «Aus Tunneln gerettete Kinder». Im Text geht es um angeblich «gefolterte Kinder, die vom Militär aus Tunneln unter dem Capitol Hill gerettet wurden».

Publisher’s rating: Das im Beitrag verwendete Bild eines Tunnels hat einen ganz anderen Ursprung. Es entstand 2018 in Thailand. Die Geschichte der vermeintlich in Washington unter dem Kapitol geretteten Kinder ist eine haltlose Verschwörungserzählung.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturCrime & justice

In sozialen Medien kursiert die Behauptung, dass Kriminelle mit Betäubungsmittel getränkte Masken verteilen, um Raubüberfälle zu begehen, etwa in diesem Post (hier archiviert). Sie gäben sich als Mitarbeiter der lokalen Behörden oder des Gesundheitsamtes aus. In einigen Posts heißt es, dies sei in Schwenningen in Baden-Württemberg passiert, in anderen ist von Vorpommern die Rede.

Publisher’s rating: Die Polizei hat die Behauptungung als Falschmeldung bezeichnet. Die Geschichte kursiert in mehreren Ländern. Es gibt auch dort keine Belege dafür, dass sie stimmt.

The claim concerned alleged robberies in which people posing as local-authority or health-office staff handed out masks treated with an incapacitating drug. Posts placed the supposed incidents in Schwenningen, Baden-Württemberg, and Vorpommern. The review reports that the Konstanz police addressed the Schwenningen version on 26 January 2021, saying they knew of neither door-to-door FFP2 mask sales nor any case involving a mask treated with a drug. The local police also told a newspaper they had no information about such robberies. [S1]

FACTLYCrime & justice

Photo of ‘Toolkit’ case accused Nikita Jacob along with Delhi CM Aravind Kejriwal.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim identifies the woman standing beside Aravind Kejriwal in a circulating photo as Nikita Jacob, the Mumbai-based activist accused in the “Toolkit” case. FACTLY’s review says the image was misidentified: the woman is Ankita Shah, an Aam Aadmi Party volunteer, not Jacob. The review describes how it checked the image. A reverse image search found other social media posts showing the same photo with a similar claim. FACTLY then reports finding Shah’s own Facebook and Twitter posts sharing the photo in 2019. It also notes that Shah’s Twitter bio described her as part of AAP’s National Social Media Team. The review further reports that Shah posted a clarification on her Facebook page saying her photo had been falsely portrayed as showing Jacob. Together, the photo’s earlier sharing under Shah’s name and her clarification support the review’s conclusion that the pictured woman was Shah, rather than the person identified in the claim.