Ambassador Morse Tan answers questions from citizens during a press conference held in front of the Olympic Park Handball Gymnasium in Songpa-gu, Seoul. June 24, 2026. [Photo = Yonhap News]

The Ministry of Justice has once again extended the exit ban for Morse Tan, former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice, following his formal indictment by the prosecution.

Tan was accused after claiming during press conferences held in Washington D.C. and other locations last year that "Lee Jae-myung was involved in a gang rape and murder case as a teenager and was detained in a juvenile detention center."

Initially, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Cyber Investigation Unit, which received the complaint, dismissed the case (non-referral) in April, citing jurisdictional issues under the Criminal Act (crimes committed abroad) because the suspect was a foreigner and the alleged crimes occurred outside the United States.

However, the prosecution applied the legal principle that the place of a crime includes not only where the act occurred but also the "place where the results occurred." They pointed out that since the victim resides in South Korea, the damage occurred within the country, granting Korean judicial authorities jurisdiction. Consequently, the investigation was abruptly resumed with a request for a reinvestigation by the police.

With the prosecution officially indicting Tan, the Ministry of Justice lifted the previous exit ban, which was originally set to expire on the 31st of this month, and extended the measure until the 15th of next month to ensure the smooth progress of the trial.

Morse Tan, who served as Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice during the first Trump administration, recently visited a protest site at Olympic Park in Songpa-gu, Seoul, where he alleged that China is behind election fraud.