A court has rejected a request by Morse Tan, a former professor at Liberty University in the United States, to suspend a second travel ban imposed on him. Tan, whose Korean name is Dan Hyun-myung, was referred to prosecutors on charges of defaming President Lee Jae-myung.
Kim Tae-hwan, a senior judge at the Seoul Administrative Court's Administrative Division 3, rejected the request Friday to suspend the travel ban that Tan had filed against the Minister of Justice. The decision follows an earlier rejection of Tan's first request to suspend the initial travel ban, marking the second time his request was denied.
The court judged that while the measure could cause harm to Tan, suspending the effect of the measure would have a greater impact on public welfare when considering factors such as the progress of the investigation.
Tan served as Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice at the State Department during the first Trump administration and has repeatedly claimed that fraudulent elections took place in Korea. He is accused of spreading false information last June while meeting with reporters in Washington, D.C., asserting that President Lee Jae-myung had been incarcerated in a juvenile detention center after being involved in a murder case during his teenage years.
Tan received the travel ban after failing to comply with police summonses during the investigation. He was subsequently referred to prosecutors without detention on the 1st of this month. Prosecutors lifted the existing travel ban and then imposed a new one.
