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.
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.
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.
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”.
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.
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.
Right in the summary. He’s not going to murder people. This is a huge over reach on the use of mental hospitals.
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.
Well yeah. A danger to the public generally refers to killing or maiming yourself or others. That’s been the standard for a long time now.
And the judge said why they committed him. There’s no need to go looking for more.
No no no, he’s going to leak more GTA 6 if he gets out. That’s super dangerous stuff that the public shouldn’t see yet.
It’s not actually a life sentence, it’s a sentence until he is cured.
Cured of autism?
Autism isn’t a free pass to do whatever you like without consequences. Most people manage to be autistic without cybercrime and violence, or telling the judge they intend to commit more crimes.
No, the desire/inability to not continue to commit crimes.
Nhs mental health services isn’t going to do that.
No one gets “cured” of autism.
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.
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.
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.
Not of autism damnit. His desire/inability not to continue to commit crimes.
Don’t try to twist me
Cured of the desire to commit further crimes. Not cured of autism.
How exactly they’ll determine that, I don’t know.
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.
Dude’s unfit to stand trial.
He’s unfit to stand trial, but he’s not unfit enough to continue to commit the crimes he’s been committing.
Again, just because nobody else seems to be bringing it up, *he was already out on bail for cybercrimes when he hacked Rockstar. *
Dude’s unfit to be loose in society. Doesn’t leave a lot of options.
I dunno, he’s seem to do pretty good things thus far.
But that’s just my independent viewpoint.
Article says he’s been breaking stuff and hurting people while in custody. This isn’t just about GTA.
Good call. Life in a psyche ward.
Until he stops hurting people. Criminy, is nobody reading more than just the headline?
Nope
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.
Let’s also remember he hacked Rockstar while out on bail for hacking other companies. He was already given a chance, and he committed another fucking crime.