Claim: “U.S. Embassy denied Top Government Officials.”
Source: CDC-TV NEWS Torka Korkoryiza
Verdict: Unverified, we found no evidence to support the Facebook post.
Full Text: following the 177 Independence Day message by Dr. Robtel Neajai Pailey on July 26, 2024, in which she alleged that the United States of America has taken more from Liberia than it has given, many Liberians have given their perspective on her oration.
Surprisingly, a Facebook user and supporter of Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) Torkpa Korkoryiza posted in a Facebook group called “CDC-TV News” with 73.9k members that top officials of government, including Jeremiah Kpan Koung, vice president of the Republic of Liberia, were denied visas by the United States through its embassy near Monrovia.
According to the post, Gregory Coleman, Abraham Kromah, and Mike Jabeteh are among those whom Torkpa claimed were denied visas by the U.S. government.
Torkpa noted that those government officials were denied based on corruption, human rights abuse, ritualistic killings, willful killings, drug trafficking, and murder.
The claims can be found here and here. It has captured the public’s attention with 21 reactions, 20 comments, and 34 shares, while VP Koung claimed to have received 6 comments and 41 shares on social media platforms.
Verification: To conclude our research, we contacted Robert J. Clarke, Strategic Communications Specialist of the Public Diplomacy Section, U.S. Embassy in Monrovia.
In an August 15, 2024 response to our inquiries via email, Clarke said they cannot openly discuss the visa denial issues on grounds of upholding individual privacy protection based on respecting the confidentiality of visa records under U.S. law.
He said, “Visa records are confidential under U.S. law, therefore, we cannot discuss the details of individual visa cases.”
For further verification purposes, we contacted the Liberia National Police Spokesperson, Cecelia Clarke, on August 19, 2024, via WhatsApp, direct calls, and a visit to your office at the headquarters of the LNP to provide further details to this claim. Still, she has not responded to our inquiry.
However, we found a press release dated June 2024 when the IG attended a summit in the United States.
Conclusion: After contacting the US Embassy, the claim could not be verified; thus, it is unproven that the US Embassy denied those government officials visas.
