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GTA 6 Leaker Moved From Psychiatric Hospital to Prison Ahead of November Retrial

The transfer signals a legal shift because the defendant was previously judged unfit to stand trial and will now face a conventional criminal case.

Overview

  • BBC correspondent Joe Tidy reported Thursday that Arion Kurtaj has left the secure psychiatric hospital and is now in a standard prison awaiting a retrial.
  • In 2023 a UK court accepted psychiatric findings that Kurtaj was unfit to stand trial, diagnosing acute autism and ordering indefinite hospital detention because he expressed a desire to return to hacking.
  • Authorities say Kurtaj was linked to Lapsus$ and to the 2022 leak of roughly 90 GTA 6 development videos that totaled about 50 minutes of footage.
  • Rockstar told the court the breach cost about $5 million and thousands of staff hours and investigators say the intrusion was carried out from a hotel room using an Amazon Fire TV Stick and a phone.
  • Journalists report unverified social posts attributed to Kurtaj that taunt the case and claim associates hold source code, and legal observers say it is unclear how a retrial will proceed after the earlier unfitness finding.