Photo : YONHAP News
Police have requested an exit ban for Morse Tan, a Korean-American professor accused of spreading false information about President Lee Jae Myung.
On Monday the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency asked the justice ministry to ban Tan from leaving the country, and that request has reportedly been approved.
Police asked Tan to appear for questioning after he entered the country on Thursday, but Tan has thus far refused.
Tan, a professor at Virginia-based Liberty University, is being investigated on suspicion of defamation after he falsely claimed at a news conference in Washington last June that President Lee was involved in violent crimes as a teenager.
Police had initially decided last month not to seek Tan’s indictment, given that he made the controversial remarks in the U.S., but are looking into the case again after the prosecution requested a reinvestigation.