The 18-year-old Lapsus$ hacker who played a critical role in leaking Grand Theft Auto VI footage has been sentenced to life inside a hospital prison, according to a report from the BBC. A British judge ruled on Thursday that Arion Kurtaj is a high risk to the public because he still wants to commit cybercrimes.

In August, a London jury found that Kurtaj carried out cyberattacks against GTA VI developer Rockstar Games and other companies, including Uber and Nvidia. However, since Kurtaj has autism and was deemed unfit to stand trial, the jury was asked to determine whether he committed the acts in question, not whether he did so with criminal intent.

    • djsoren19@yiffit.net
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      11 months ago

      I don’t think the kid will actually serve it out in prison though. The primary issue here seems to be that the kid is actively saying they will commit more crimes. No matter the crime, you can’t really give a light sentence to someone telling you, in a court of law, that they will do it again.

      The ideal would be that they rehabilitate him until he’s able to be safely released with no fear of repeat offense, or at the very least, until the kid is smart enough to lie.

      • GlitzyArmrest@lemmy.worldOP
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        11 months ago

        It’s not prison, it’s some sort of prison hospital. But still, life is the exact opposite end of the spectrum compared to a light sentence. Like you said, rehabilitation should be the goal, and imposing life sentences on 18 year olds is not how you make that happen.

        He only got a life sentence because he made corporations look bad IMO. Not because of him saying he’d do it again.

        • admiralteal@kbin.social
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          11 months ago

          I mean, he didn’t even get a life sentence. That’s in the headline, I know, but it’s just not true.

          He’s in the hospital indefinitely, not sentenced to life. There’s a big fat or clause that completely undermines the “life sentence”.

          He’s required to stay in the hospital prison for life unless doctors determine that he’s no longer a danger.

          I’m not really sure what anyone thinks WOULD be just and proper in this kind of situation. I don’t know many details of this particular case, but if there has been due process that determines someone is unsafe to release into society because they lack social capacity, releasing them anyway hardly seems like justice.

          I’d like to believe – though I know it basically isn’t true – that the justice system exists for the sake of justice. That it is primarily concerned with making whole the victims and making sure the criminals are rehabilitated such that they can safely rejoin society and even contribute to it in the future. I think that’s how the justice system should work in a fair and just world. But if you have someone who is actually incapable of rejoining society, what are you supposed to do?

          If we want to focus on the awfulness of this situation, I don’t think the sentence is the issue. I think the focus would need to be on whether or not the hospital treatment has any chance of being effective – because if it doesn’t, THAT’S the story that matters.

          • emeralddawn45@discuss.tchncs.de
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            11 months ago

            Who exactly was victimized here? Who was harmed and in what way? God the capitalist bootlicking is insane. Seriously arguing for taking away a neurodivergent person’s agency because some game spoilers got released. Not a good look.

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            A British judge ruled on Thursday that Arion Kurtaj is a high risk to the public because he still wants to commit cybercrimes.

            Right in the summary. He’s not going to murder people. This is a huge over reach on the use of mental hospitals.

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              11 months ago

              It’s also right in the article that he was violent. That doesn’t really matter though; what matters is whether he’s competent to stand trial and whether it is reasonable to release him back to the regular justice system or general public.

              I guess your point is that there’s no safety hazard since his particular behavior isn’t at least murder? Or maybe that cybercrime in particular is actually good and not a problem? It’s not really a coherent framework to discuss these things either way.

            • AnonTwo@kbin.social
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              11 months ago

              I feel like just saying this is autism, is insulting to people with autism? The violent acts the article said he did can’t just be attributed to autism.

              Like the OP wants to compare this to law enforcement crimes where it’s about what someone has done, whereas this is about medical hospitalization because of what someone is currently doing

              Like he’s an active, physical threat. The cybercrimes are very secondary to what is going on.

              • FaceDeer@kbin.social
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                11 months ago

                Yeah, I’m getting bothered by this too. My brother had a pretty bad case of autism, he suffered from hard-to-control anger issues, but he learned how to keep those outbursts from causing damage or harming the people around him.

                Maybe this guy can learn to control himself, maybe he can’t, autism is an extremely broad and varied condition. But either way, it’s not unreasonable to keep him in a hospital until he’s safe.

              • girlfreddy@lemmy.ca
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                11 months ago

                Are you autistic? Cause I am and nothing I said was or is insulting.

                What is insulting is you somehow thinking you know anything about how difficult it is for people like us to live in a world where everyone tells us how we should live without first understanding who we are and how our brains work.

                The so-called violence wasn’t described in detail … so it could mean they threw food at someone or banged a chair on the floor.

            • Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca
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              11 months ago

              Cured of the desire to commit further crimes. Not cured of autism.

              How exactly they’ll determine that, I don’t know.

              • Shyfer@ttrpg.network
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                11 months ago

                Will probably wait until they’re at least smart enough to lie about not wanting to commit more crimes. Maybe then they’ll be mentally fit enough to stand trial, but I’m not sure.

      • chitak166@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        No matter the crime, you can’t really give a light sentence to someone telling you, in a court of law, that they will do it again.

        Dude’s unfit to stand trial.

          • chitak166@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            I dunno, he’s seem to do pretty good things thus far.

            But that’s just my independent viewpoint.

            • FaceDeer@kbin.social
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              11 months ago

              Article says he’s been breaking stuff and hurting people while in custody. This isn’t just about GTA.

            • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              I couldn’t care less about the stuff he’s breaking (so far at least), it’s moreso the breaking part that concerns me. Like, this doesn’t sound like someone following a deeply held belief and breaking property as a way to fight corporations. It’s someone having a temper tantrum.

    • ExcursionInversion@lemmy.world
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      During Thursday’s hearing, the court heard Kurtaj “had been violent while in custody with dozens of reports of injury or property damage,” the BBC reports. A mental health assessment also found that Kurtaj “continued to express the intent to return to cybercrime as soon as possible.” He’s required to stay in the hospital prison for life unless doctors determine that he’s no longer a danger.

      Sounds like dude has some stuff to work out mentally

      • Caradoc879@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        He has autism. It affects the brain in very specific ways for each individual, but in general Executive function is the first thing to go when in stressful situations. You know, emotional regulation and self control? And I also guarantee that the cops and guards were treating him like shit. They LOVE picking on disabled people. I have no doubt most of the charges and incidents were exacerbated by the people in charge.

        • deweydecibel@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          The dude committed crimes while on bail. Autism doesn’t excuse that, and even if it did, it’s still a problem that needs to be dealt with.

          A mental health assessment used as part of the sentencing hearing said he “continued to express the intent to return to cyber-crime as soon as possible. He is highly motivated.”

          The jury was told that while he was on bail for hacking Nvidia and BT/EE and in police protection at a Travelodge hotel, he continued hacking and carried out his most infamous hack.

          Despite having his laptop confiscated, Kurtaj managed to breach Rockstar, the company behind GTA, using an Amazon Firestick, his hotel TV and a mobile phone.

          Nothing is being trumped up, here. The kid is just brazen about this.

          • deweydecibel@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            This kid wasn’t arrested for having autism. It was for brazenly commiting crimes, and even when he was released on bail, he committed even more crimes in police protection.

            The jury was told that while he was on bail for hacking Nvidia and BT/EE and in police protection at a Travelodge hotel, he continued hacking and carried out his most infamous hack.

            Despite having his laptop confiscated, Kurtaj managed to breach Rockstar, the company behind GTA, using an Amazon Firestick, his hotel TV and a mobile phone.

            This is not some poor autistic kid that’s getting picked on by cops, he’s a highly capable hacker expressing a explicit intent to continue to break the law and cause harm to both individuals and corporations.

            • ExcursionInversion@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              Never said he was getting picked by cops on or arrested for having autism.

              the court heard that the 17-year-old and Kurtaj used stolen SIM details from five victims to steal a total of nearly £100,000 from their cryptocurrency accounts which were secured by their compromised mobile phone SIM identities.

              He is a hacker and a thief that has a lot of work to do psychologically

          • Caradoc879@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Umm… look the fuck around? All cops are bastards. Mental health facilities aren’t better. I was a kid in a couple, and worked at one myself. There are good staff, yeah, but there’s also a 99% fucking chance that every kid will encounter a bad one. And there’s a lot of bad ones. If youre lucky theyre lazy and just neglect you. Others have little patience and are likely to yell and chastise during an incident. They’ll do vindictive little things to mentally ill children because theyve had to write an incident report. They’ll taunt and goad kids into being aggressive. They’ll ABSOLUTELY make all kinds of disparaging comments about the kids.

            I have seen it all, far too often. Its absolutely rampant.

            • vatniksplatnik@lemm.ee
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              11 months ago

              So zero evidence the cops and guards in this case did anything wrong. Thanks for being honest about lying =)

              • toasteecup@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                Going to be honest, I think you need to go back to reddit.

                None of what you say seems to be in good faith whereas the person you’re replying to is at least giving personal experiences from both being a kid in that system and having worked in it as an adult.

                Downvote haraas and insult me all you want, won’t change the fact that you aren’t contributing to a better community or dialogue.

                • vatniksplatnik@lemm.ee
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                  11 months ago

                  I think you need to go back to reddit.

                  Or else what? You’ll do something to me? You’ll downvote me?

                  • toasteecup@lemmy.world
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                    11 months ago

                    I’m not going to do anything, I’m just making a suggestion based on your overly aggressive and hostile comments.

                    I would say it’s rather telling that you just assume someone is going to “do something to you” when they give you a suggestion though.

                    Might be worth taking a step back from the Internet and figuring out what’s causing you to be such an angry person. Might even help lower your blood pressure.

        • ExcursionInversion@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          No. But you also can’t say I’m going to go straight back to commitmenting the exact same crime asap

          A mental health assessment also found that Kurtaj “continued to express the intent to return to cybercrime as soon as possible.”

          • kick_out_the_jams@kbin.social
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            11 months ago

            Although he stayed at a hotel under police protection during this time, Kurtaj still managed to carry out an attack on Rockstar Games by using the room’s included Amazon Fire Stick and a “newly purchased smart phone, keyboard and mouse,” according to a separate BBC report. Kurtaj was arrested for the final time following the incident.

            He already did it again, didn’t realize this was the one who did it again while on bail.

        • FaceDeer@kbin.social
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          11 months ago

          He’s required to stay in the hospital prison for life unless doctors determine that he’s no longer a danger.

          These sorts of sentences aren’t really “life”, they’re “life until you’re cured.”

          • ULS@lemmy.ml
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            11 months ago

            The hard part of it is that the system is so lame that they are probably going to do more damage to him in turn making him have to stay longer.

            • FaceDeer@kbin.social
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              11 months ago

              Indeed, but if we wait for everything to be perfect nothing will ever get done. Reforms of the system can continue alongside treatment.

              • stephan262@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                I guess we’ll have to just lock him up while we figure out some way of stopping him committing cybercrime. If only there were some way of preventing him from committing this crime that requires access to a computer to commit. I guess he’ll just have to stay trapped in a phyche ward until society can figure this one out.

                Sorry for being snarky and sarcastic, I know what you mean and agree with you. My sarcasm is directed more at the judges ruling and your comment is just what sparked me to write it.

                • FaceDeer@kbin.social
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                  11 months ago

                  It’s not the cybercrime that he’s in the mental hospital over. He’s been physically violent as well.

            • FaceDeer@kbin.social
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              11 months ago

              You think he’s been charged with autism? Most autistic people aren’t a danger to the people around them. That’s the problem here.

              • Deceptichum@kbin.social
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                11 months ago

                Hacks private companies

                Danger to the public

                Get off it mate, it’s not like he’s a cop. There’s no danger to you or I.

                He was no danger to anyone before being locked up and deprived of liberty, in which case he started acting out as anyone would.

                • FaceDeer@kbin.social
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                  11 months ago

                  Hacks private companies and threatens to release their users’ data.

                  Smashes physical stuff and beats up physical people after he’s taken into custody. Note that he hasn’t actually gone to trial yet, so this is what he’s currently in the mental hospital for. You really think “anyone” would start beating people up when taken into custody? Why isn’t everyone doing that?

                  • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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                    11 months ago

                    Yeah I’m not so much concerned for the property he’s damaging, but moreso the act of damaging. That points to instability, violence, and poor impulse control.

                • AnonTwo@kbin.social
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                  11 months ago

                  Get off it mate, it’s not like he’s a cop. There’s no danger to you or I.

                  .

                  During Thursday’s hearing, the court heard Kurtaj “had been violent while in custody with dozens of reports of injury or property damage,”

                  Uhh no he was a danger to people. Actually how did you get down to this comment without reading the top of the branch that already quoted this part of the article?

        • AnonTwo@kbin.social
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          11 months ago

          Your wording is wrong. It’s a medical life sentence. It would be cleared immediately on doctor approval.

    • cheese_greater@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      If he’s unfit for trial doesn’t he wait until he can? That is beyond unjust on every which side unless he is that level of fucked up. What is life like in an NCR-type deal hospital for life?

      Is it like a decent group home or where is he being sent to exactly?

      • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        It sounds like he is that level of fucked up. Getting violent and breaking shit and literally saying “I’ll fuckin do it again”.

    • Tedesche@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      You might try reading the article you posted then, because it says very plainly:

      He’s required to stay in the hospital prison for life unless doctors determine that he’s no longer a danger.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        A danger of commiting cyber crimes. You forgot that part. This could be solved with a probation officer and a restriction on technology use. Instead, he’s in a mental hospital. This is ridiculous and a way to weaponize his disability as a warning to others.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Considering he hacked Rockstar because they put him in a hotel room with a land line phone and an Amazon Firestick while in custody for hacking, I’d say he has a serious mental issue here.

          • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            I think whoever left him alone with an Internet connection has the serious mental issue.

            • Shyfer@ttrpg.network
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              They did strip him of stuff, he just found the Fire Stick and bought the phone - while on bail for other cybercrimes. The point is he’s determined to commit crimes. You can’t let someone out free in society like this. Meeting up with a probation officer every now and then isn’t good enough for this kind of person. It’s a compulsion. He can’t even mentally stand trial right now.

              • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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                11 months ago

                There are absolutely ways to do so. Hackers are kept in the public under those conditions all the time. This is a modern lynching to serve as an example.

      • Woht24@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Yes… It’s the same sentence criminally insane murderers get.

        People pleading insanity and thinking ‘they get away with it’, has always made me laugh. You might get probation in 20 years but in an asylum, you have no sentence it’s just a matter of if the doctors ever agree to release you.

    • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
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      I mean… what is the alternative? He said he’s going to continue hacking once he’s free, so do you think 5 or 10 years in prison will do anything to deter him? It doesn’t sound like it at all.

      edit: plenty of downvotes, but nobody is suggesting what should be done instead?

      • Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        11 months ago

        Not sure why this is down voted.

        Besides being aggressive and destructive, he declared he will not stop doing crime.

        This is not some “hero vs corporations” feel-good story as people seem to think here.

        • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
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          11 months ago

          I dunno why people think social engineering has no victims and is harmless. It’s just not the case.

    • 2fat4that@kbin.social
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      11 months ago

      Cybercrime destroys lives. It’s anti-commerce and it can absolutely ruin a small business. Who the victim was does not matter. He openly intends to do it again if ever released so section his ass.

      • Cosmoooooooo@lemmy.world
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        “ruin a small business”.

        This is Rockstar. They make billions. All the hype is just free press for them, which is pro-commerce for them and the press.

        Yeah, it destroys lives when it’s taken out of proportion for a stupid leak vs. a life sentence. You ruin lives with your nonsense because a billion dollar company doesn’t have decent cyber-security? GTA is completely full of script kiddies in every session. Maybe rockstar needs to get their act together instead of throwing people in jail for doing exactly what is required in game. Where you’re a criminal that hacks tech companies to advance in the plot. In game, it kills people. In real life, nobody was hurt at all.

        • Zess@lemmy.world
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          Rockstar isn’t the only company he hacked and hacking isn’t his only crime. Read the fucking article. The rest of your logic is just a mess. Doesn’t matter how much security Rockstar has. You can’t walk into a mansion and steal something just because the front door is unlocked. And your last point is just so fucking stupid. It’s ok to hack Rockstar because they have hacking in their games? Jesus. I don’t like or even play Rockstar games but you can’t just commit crimes against them and think it’s ok because they have a lot of money.

      • gregorum@lemm.ee
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        Anti-commerce? oh, no! Won’t anyone think of the multi billion dollar corporation?

      • echo64@lemmy.world
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        Maybe they should chop the hands off cyber criminals as a warning to other would be cybercriminals too. In fact, life is too easy for someone who hurts a company, we should just shoot them all immediately