On October 23, Facebook pages Fაქტები (Facts), განსხვავებული ツ (Distinct) and Bachita published a man’s photo who has a noose around his neck and is smiling. All three posts have the identical description: He hacked accounts of 217 Banks, collected 400 million, and gave it to poor people…. He met his death with a smile, his name was Hamza, the Algerian hacker…”. On October 25, a photo with an identical description was published on the Facebook page „Georgian • ქართველი“ (Georgian•Georgian).
Posts published by the Facebook pages are photo manipulation. The man depicted in the photo isn’t Algerian hacker Hamza, but Majid Kavousifar who was executed for murdering a judge in Iran in 2007. In 2016, a U.S court sentenced Algerian hacker Hamza Bendelladj to 15 years in prison for robbing banks via a computer virus.
The man depicted in the photo is Majid Kavousifar. He, together with his uncle Hossein Kavousifar were publicly executed in the capital of Iran, Tehran in 2007. Kavousifars were sentenced to death because of the murder of Judge Hassan Moghaddas in Tehran in 2005. BBC has disseminated information on public execution.
As for the Algerian hacker Hamza Bendelladj, he, together with partner Russian hacker Alexander Panin has created a computer virus package „SpyEye“ that infected approximately 50 million computers. As the BBC writes, hackers stole around 100 million dollars through a virus. Moreover, according to the information of the U.S. Department of Justice, the damage from 2010 to 2012 is believed to have cost banks around the world more than $1bn. Hamza Bendelladj has been sentenced to 15 years in prison, whereas his partner Aleksandr Panin – 9 years and 6 months.
As for the claim that Hamza Bendelladj “has given stolen money to poor people”, about this issue, diverse information can be found in open sources . As Aljazeera writes, after Algerian hacker robbed over 200 banks in the U.S using the computer virus, he “reportedly” gave money to Palestinian charity organizations. Article published by BBC in 2013 contains the comment from Immigration Police Chief, according to whom, when hacker was arrested and asked what he did with the stolen money, he said he spent it on luxurious life and traveling.
Aljazeera article reads that after his extradition, rumors began to circulate that the hacker was sentenced to death, and this was followed by a campaign in support of the hacker and the request to spare his life. US ambassador to Algeria, Joan Polaschik, answered the claim in a tweet saying computer crimes are not punishable by the death penalty.
Dissemination of the photo manipulation
On October 23, the photo was published by the following pages: Fაქტები (Facts), განსხვავებული ツ (Distinct), and Bachita. As of October 26, Facts’ post has 55 shares and page Bachita’s – 7. On October 25, a photo with the identical description was published by the page Georgian • ქართველი (Georgian•Georgian), the post has 49 shares.
As of October 26, the post published by the page განსხვავებული ツ (Distinct) has the most shares – 914 and reactions – around 1000.
Facebook user Nana Alania has published the photo with an identical description in the group მწვანე ჰორიზონტი / Green Horizon (Green Horizon/Green Horizon), the post has 42 shares.
Identical photo manipulation has been disseminated outside of Georgia as well. On February 25, 2020, African fact-checking platform africacheck.org published an article refuting Algerian hacker’s photo manipulation with real facts
It’s worth mentioning that the mentioned photo in a manipulative context has appeared in Georgian social network after 21 October when the Bank of Georgia in Zugdidi was robbed and the assailant took hostages.
Data from CrowdTangle, a public insights tool owned and operated by Facebook.
