"Moss Tan Indicted Without Detention for Defamation Over Claim That President Lee Was a Juvenile Offender"

Defamation Charges Under Information and Communications Network Act and Criminal Act
Confidential Investigation Following Travel Ban; Case Sent to Prosecutors on July 1

Moss Tan, a Korean-American former professor at Liberty University in the United States (Korean name: Dan Hyunmyung), has been indicted on charges of defamation for spreading false information alleging that President Lee Jaemyung was sent to a juvenile detention center as a teenager.

According to the legal community on July 22, the Criminal Division 1 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Lee Juhee) indicted Tan without detention on July 16 on charges of defamation under the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection, as well as defamation under the Criminal Act.

Tan is accused of spreading conspiracy theories at a press conference in Washington, D.C., last year, claiming that “President Lee was involved in a group sexual assault and murder case as a youth and was sent to a juvenile detention center,” as well as alleging “Chinese interference in Korea’s fraudulent election.”

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s Cyber Investigation Unit received a complaint from the civic group Jayu Daehan Hogukdan against Tan last July. In April this year, police dismissed the case, citing lack of jurisdiction for crimes committed by foreigners abroad. However, the prosecution requested a reinvestigation on the grounds that the victim, President Lee, is residing in Korea, which led to the probe’s reopening.

On May 28, police summoned Tan after he entered Korea, stating an intent to monitor and verify fraudulent elections ahead of the June 3 local elections. However, Tan failed to appear, submitting a statement of non-attendance. The police, citing the necessity of the investigation, requested the Ministry of Justice to prohibit Tan from leaving the country, and the Ministry imposed a travel ban on Tan through July 31.

Tan filed an injunction to overturn the travel ban, but the court dismissed the request. Subsequently, on June 25, the police privately summoned Tan for about two hours of questioning and forwarded the case to the prosecution on July 1.

Meanwhile, Tan previously served as Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice during the first Trump Administration in the United States. He has been a prominent proponent of election fraud conspiracy theories—defending the 12·3 Martial Law declared by former President Yoon Suk-yeol, claiming fraud in the 21st presidential election, and repeatedly attending the “ballot box blockade protests” at Olympic Park in Songpa-gu, Seoul, where he insisted that China was behind the fraudulent election.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.