Did the U.S. Judge Advocate General's Corps convict World Health Organization official Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu of committing multiple crimes on January 25, 2024? No, that's not true: This claim appears in an article on a website that regularly publishes fabricated content. Lead Stories previously debunked the claim, which is also mentioned in this article, that U.S. Marines initially arrested Ihekweazu.
The claim appeared in an article published by Real Raw News on January 29, 2024, titled "JAG Convicts WHO Goon" (archived here), which began:
January 25 , 2024: Guantanamo Bay, South Court
Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu was threatened with expulsion from his military tribunal and summary judgment against him for repeatedly ignoring warnings to stay silent during Vice Adm. Darse E. Crandall's opening remarks. After rebuffing a third admonition, Ihekweazu, whom U.S. Marines arrested for suspicion of espionage and conspiracy to harm American citizens in December, challenged the proceedings by saying JAG had no authority to arrest or criminally charge members of the world's leading health authority.
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JAG Convicts WHO Goon
January 25 , 2024: Guantanamo Bay, South Court Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu was threatened with expulsion from his military tribunal and summary judgment against him for repeatedly ignoring warnings to stay silent during Vice Adm. Darse E. Crandall's opening remarks. After rebuffing a third admonition, Ihekweazu, whom U.S. Marines arrested for suspicion of espionage and conspiracy to harm American citizens in December, challenged the proceedings by saying JAG had no authority to arrest or criminally charge members of the world's leading health authority.
(Source: Real Raw News screenshot taken on Thu Feb 1 15:25:37 2024 UTC)
The claim in this article is that Ihekweazu was convicted on January 25, 2024, for multiple crimes after being arrested by U.S. Marines in December 2023. In a December 27, 2023, fact check, Lead Stories found the claim that U.S. Marines arrested World Health Organization (WHO) official Ihekweazu to be false.
A Google News search (archived here) using the keywords "Judge Advocate General's Corps" AND "Convicts" AND "WHO" AND "Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu" AND "January 2024" AND "Guantanamo Bay" produced no results that substantiated this claim.
As seen in the screenshot below, Ihekweazu was active on his official X, formerly known as Twitter, account on January 25, 2024 (archived here), when he published two posts that did not make any mention of his purported conviction:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Feb 1 15:25:37 2024 UTC)
Ihekweazu was active on his X account as recently as February 1, 2024, where he made a post (archived here) that did not mention a conviction and instead was about the implementation of a new program by the World Health Organization.
Lead Stories reached out to the U.S. Navy, Office of the Secretary of Defense and WHO concerning this claim and will update this fact check if a response is received.
Real Raw News
Real Raw News has a long history of publishing false claims in mock news stories, many of them about convictions and executions of various public figures at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. For example, the site reported former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was hanged (she wasn't); former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta was executed (he wasn't); and "the military" convicted former Attorney General William Barr on charges of treason (it didn't).
The website for Real Raw News includes a disclaimer that declares the site does not stand by the contents of the stories, calling them entertainment. Specifically, it says:
Information on this website is for informational and educational and entertainment purposes. ... We have included this disclaimer for our protection, on the advice on legal counsel.
(Source: RealRawNews.com screenshot taken Tue Aug 3 16:39:48 UTC 2021)
Lead Stories has covered claims published by Real Raw News in the past. Previous Lead Stories debunks of Real Raw News items are collected here.
