• According to an article published on the News Punch website, billionaire Bill Gates has been wanted on an arrest warrant in the Philippines for "premeditated murder" related to the deployment of a vaccine.
  • However, the site in question is known to publish many rumors and false information.
  • Moreover, the court mentioned does not exist in the Philippines. With 20 Minutes, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation denies the information.

Bill Gates arrested in the Philippines? This is what publications that have gone viral on TikTok claim. "An arrest warrant [for] Bill Gates issued in the Philippines for 'premeditated murder' related to the deployment of a vaccine," reads the headline. A "verified" rating was added to the article giving the impression of reliable information. Yet the news does not seem to have been published elsewhere. Where does it come from and is it so reliable? 20 Minutes looked into the issue.



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The article was published on March 2 by News Punch. A site that is mysteriously not referenced on the Google search engine, but visible on Bing for example. According to the website Conspiracy Watch, "NewsPunch.com is the new name of YourNewsWire.com, a fake news site run by British director Sean Adl-Tabatabai."

On its description, News Punch describes itself as "an American news publication committed to covering headlines that mainstream media avoid." But the site is known to be fond of many conspiracy theories, including the Pizzagate affair that imagined a pedophilia network around Hillary Clinton's former campaign manager.

Guilty of hundreds of thousands of deaths

What does the article say? According to the site, an investigation into the deployment of vaccination has been opened by a court in the Philippines. The judge reportedly said Bill Gates was wanted in the face of the hundreds of thousands of deaths he allegedly caused because of the Covid-19 vaccine. "A number that cannot be estimated at the moment and will certainly increase exponentially over time," says the author.

The article adds that the billionaire had been banned from entering the country since 2016. "The Manila Heinous Crimes Court ordered Gates' arrest under Section 248 of the Revised Penal Code (PRC), which provides for a minimum prison sentence of 20 years and one day," the paper states.

No "hate crime court"

However, the Heinous Crimes Court in Manila does not currently exist in the Philippines. On the official website of the Council of Judges in Asia, the different courts of justice in the Philippines are listed: the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, the Sandiganbayan [an appellate court in charge of criminal and civil cases], the first and second level courts and the Sharia-related court. But the list makes no mention of "hate crimes."

In addition, no information on the billionaire's arrest has been published in local media. Contacted by 20 Minutes, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation confirms that the claim is false.

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