A South Korean court has rejected a request to suspend an exit ban on Moss Tan, a professor at Liberty University in the United States, who is under investigation for allegedly claiming that President Lee Jae-myung was involved in past criminal activities, including election fraud.
According to legal sources on June 4, the Seoul Administrative Court, presided over by Judge Wi Ji-hyun, dismissed Tan's application to suspend the exit ban imposed by police.
The court acknowledged the urgent need to prevent irreparable harm to Tan but stated that suspending the ban could significantly impact public welfare. The ruling emphasized that investigations should not be unnecessarily prolonged due to the exit ban, but it also noted that there was no substantial reason to deem the police's judgment regarding the necessity and validity of the exit ban unreasonable.
While the court recognized the potential for Tan to suffer irreparable damage from the exit ban, it concluded that the risk to public welfare from lifting the ban was greater.
Tan, a Korean-American, immigrated to the United States with his family in 1979. He earned a Juris Doctor from Northwestern University School of Law in 2001 and became a licensed attorney in Illinois.
Tan, who served as the U.S. Department of State's Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice during the Trump administration, is currently under police investigation for spreading false information, including claims that China interfered in South Korea's elections and that President Lee spent time in a juvenile detention center.
After Tan returned to South Korea on May 28, police requested his attendance for questioning. However, when Tan's team did not comply, they applied for the exit ban, prompting Tan to file a lawsuit against the decision.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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