Latest news with #OfficeofGlobalCriminalJustice
AFP
09-07-2025
- Politics
- AFP
Baseless claims S. Korean president committed heinous crimes resurface
"Wow, I knew about the sexual assault, but not the murder part. He's even crazier. Execute him immediately," reads part of the Korean-language caption of a clip shared on X on June 27, 2025. The clip, which has been viewed more than 15,000 times, shows former US State Department ambassador-at-large for the Office of Global Criminal Justice Morse Tan, at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington (archived here and here). "Lee Jae-myung, as a youth, was involved in gang-raping and murdering a young lady, and as a result was put in juvenile detention and therefore was not able to attend junior high and high school," Tan says. Image Screenshot of the false X post captured on July 7, 2025, with a red X added by AFP Tan and far-right commentators alleged without basis during the event the country's June 3 presidential election had been rigged and China had likely intervened in the poll (archived link). He also repeated a claim debunked by AFP about unfolded ballots being proof of fraud. The claim and clip about Lee were also shared in similar Facebook, YouTube and X posts but South Korean courts have already dismissed the allegation. Court rulings Keyword searches on South Korea's Judiciary Information Access Portal led to dozens of court rulings in cases where individuals were prosecuted and fined for spreading the same false claim in violation of election laws ahead of the 2022 presidential poll (archived link). . "Criminal and investigation history report as well as the candidate information disclosure document based on it show no record of juvenile detention sentencing", reads the verdict of one case tried at the Seoul Southern District Court. The verdict, handed down in January 2023, also warned that disseminating the false claim without verifying its authenticity could distort the public's perception of a candidate and "undermine electoral fairness". Moreover, there is no record of similar convictions in Lee's official disclosures as an election candidate. Candidates are legally required to disclose any (US$730). Lee, who dropped out of school to work at a factory to support his family and sustained a disabling elbow injury in an industrial accident, has run for public office multiple times (archived link). AFP has previously debunked several false claims targeting the president, who is a frequent target of misinformation in South Korea.
Axios
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Axios
State Department reorganization impacts bureaus with human rights focus
Secretary of State Marco Rubio unveiled a new organizational chart for his department Tuesday in what he called an effort to "drain the bloated, bureaucratic swamp." The big picture: The reorganization Rubio outlined targeted some bureaus with a focus on human rights. Spokesperson Tammy Bruce said at Tuesday's briefing that the department is "reversing decades of bloat and bureaucracy." But she emphasized that "this is a reorganization plan — it is not something where people are being fired today." Yes, but: "Redundant offices" will be eliminated, Rubio wrote in a State Department Substack post Tuesday. He said "non-statutory programs misaligned with America's core national interests will cease to exist." The New York Times reported that an internal fact sheet from the department stated that part of Rubio's plan is to reduce the agency's total offices from 734 to 602. Zoom in: Rubio said that the "expansive domain" of the former under secretary for civilian security, human rights, and democracy "provided a fertile environment for activists to redefine 'human rights' and 'democracy.'" Its bureaus and offices, he said, would be placed under a new coordinator "charged with returning them to their original mission of advancing human rights and religious freedom, not promoting radical causes at taxpayer expense." Asked Tuesday about the apparent disappearance of the Office of Global Criminal Justice from the updated organizational chart, Bruce said that because a bureau is folded into another larger bureau, it "doesn't mean that it's gone or we don't care." She later added, "If you don't see it on the chart, it may be moved." Transferring remaining USAID functions"to such a monstrosity of bureaus would be to undo DOGE's work to build a more efficient and accountable government," Rubio said in his Tuesday post. He additionally said the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor was used by "left-wing activists to wage vendettas against 'anti-woke' leaders in nations such as Poland, Hungary, and Brazil" and to promote an arms embargo on Israel. Context: While Rubio accused activists of redefining human rights, multiple outlets recently reported that the Trump administration would scale back the department's annual reports on international human rights to only what is required by law. Sections on LGBTQ+ rights, issues faced by women and challenges for people with disabilities will be trimmed, Politico reported. A Department official told Fox News the changes to the 2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices are "critical for removing report redundancy, increasing readability, maintaining consistency to U.S. statutes, and returning focus to human rights issues rather than political bias."
