South Korean police are seeking to impose a travel ban on Morse Tan, a Liberty University professor in the United States known for spreading election fraud conspiracy theories.
According to police on Sunday, the Cyber Investigation Division of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency has asked the Ministry of Justice to bar Tan, who also goes by the Korean name Dan Hyun-myung, from leaving the country on suspicion of defamation through the dissemination of false information. Police reportedly determined that Tan posed a flight risk after he failed to comply with summons requests.
Tan entered South Korea through Incheon International Airport on October 28. Police summoned him for questioning shortly after his arrival, but the following day he submitted a request to recuse the investigator along with a statement explaining his non-attendance, refusing to cooperate with the investigation.
On the day he was summoned, Tan visited an early voting station set up at the Anjung-eup Community Service Center in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, instead of appearing for police questioning.
Tan is suspected of making false statements at a press conference held in Washington, D.C., in June last year, claiming that President Lee Jae-myung had been held in a juvenile detention facility for participating in a gang rape and murder during his teenage years. He is also believed to have repeated similar claims at a church in Seoul's Eunpyeong district during a visit to Korea in July of the same year.
The allegations were previously confirmed to be false through prosecutorial investigations. An individual who spread the related claims on YouTube and other platforms during the 20th presidential election was fined for disseminating false information.
Police plan to investigate the full scope of the allegations during Tan's stay in Korea. It has not yet been confirmed whether the Ministry of Justice has accepted the police request for the travel ban. "Since this is an ongoing investigation, we cannot confirm specific details," a police official said.
