{"id":767460,"date":"2026-07-17T02:39:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T02:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/767460\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T02:39:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T02:39:06","slug":"gta-6-hacker-awaits-retrial-after-being-moved-from-secure-hospital-to-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/767460\/","title":{"rendered":"GTA 6 Hacker Awaits Retrial After Being Moved From Secure Hospital to Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

The hacker behind the massive GTA 6 leak<\/a> in September 2022 has been released from indefinite imprisonment at a secure hospital and is now awaiting a retrial.<\/p>\n

Arion Kurtaj, a member of the notorious worldwide hacking group named Lapsus$, is waiting for his day in court once again after he was deemed unfit to stand trial<\/a> in December 2023 due to a medical diagnosis of \u201cacute autism.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a jury determined that he had committed the hacks, Kurtaj was sentenced to imprisonment at a secure hospital, either for life or until he was deemed medically fit to stand trial again.<\/p>\n

GTA 6 Vintage Vice City Pack Screenshots\"GTA<\/p>\n

That time has finally come, as BBC correspondent Joe Tidy confirmed on Bluesky<\/a> that Kurtaj is now awaiting a retrial in \u201cnormal prison,\u201d set to take place in November 2026 \u2014 the same month GTA 6 is expected to release.<\/p>\n

Thus far, nothing else is known about the case, nor how Kurtaj is being retried despite committing the hacking during a period of time when his mental state was so severe that it required hospitalization. <\/p>\n

Tidy stated on LinkedIn<\/a> that he\u2019s attempting to glean more information from authorities, but says police are being extremely tight-lipped about the situation to the point that it\u2019s \u201clike getting blood out of a stone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kurtaj\u2019s 2022 hack was unprecedented, leaking 90 clips from GTA 6, along with its source code, on a fan forum. What\u2019s more, he was out on bail after hacking NVIDIA and in police protection at a Travelodge when he infiltrated Rockstar\u2019s systems, using only an Amazon Firestick, the TV at his hotel, and a cell phone to pull off the cyberattack.<\/p>\n

Officials said Kurtaj had expressed violent behavior while in police custody, including “dozens of reports of injury or property damage,” with the BBC reporting<\/a> a mental health assessment that claimed he “continued to express the intent to return to cybercrime as soon as possible. He is highly motivated.”<\/p>\n

GTA 6 releases on November 19, 2026<\/a> for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. You can find more information about the decade\u2019s most-anticipated title on our hub.<\/a><\/p>\n

Virginia (she\/her) is IGN\u2019s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she\u2019s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The hacker behind the massive GTA 6 leak in September 2022 has been released from indefinite imprisonment at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[74],"class_list":["post-767460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}