GTA 6 hacker Arion Kurtaj leaves secure hospital for prison ahead of November trial
Arion Kurtaj, the young British hacker behind the 2022 Grand Theft Auto 6 leak, has been moved out of the secure psychiatric hospital where he had been held since 2023 and into an ordinary prison. Doctors have now judged him fit to stand trial, and he is due to face a full criminal trial in November 2026, the same month Rockstar is expected to launch GTA 6.
The transfer was reported on 14 July 2026 by BBC cyber correspondent Joe Tidy, who said Kurtaj had left the secure hospital and was now in a normal prison awaiting retrial. By then he had spent roughly two and a half years in the hospital.
What happened to the GTA 6 hacker
Kurtaj was never handed a normal prison sentence. In December 2023 a judge gave him an indefinite hospital order, a measure used when someone is detained for treatment rather than punishment. Because he had been ruled unfit to stand trial, the court ran a trial of facts, decided he had carried out the hacks, and ordered him held in a secure hospital for as long as he was considered a danger to the public. With doctors now saying he is fit, that order ends and the criminal case against him can finally be heard.
Timeline of the GTA 6 leak case
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| September 2022 | Kurtaj breaks into Rockstar's internal systems and posts around 90 GTA 6 clips online, one of the biggest leaks in gaming history. |
| August 2023 | Ruled unfit to stand trial because of severe autism. A jury in a trial of facts finds he committed the hacks. |
| December 2023 | Given an indefinite hospital order and detained in a secure psychiatric hospital. |
| July 2026 | Doctors deem him fit to stand trial. He is transferred to an ordinary prison. |
| November 2026 | Due to face a full criminal trial, the same month GTA 6 is set to release. |
Why he went to a hospital and not a prison
Kurtaj was diagnosed with severe autism, and psychiatrists concluded he could not properly take part in a normal trial. The judge was also told he remained highly motivated to go back to cybercrime as soon as he could, which is why he was detained indefinitely rather than for a fixed term. He had carried out the Rockstar breach while already under police protection at a Travelodge hotel, reportedly using little more than an Amazon Fire Stick, the hotel television and a mobile phone.
The hospital he reportedly did not want to leave
According to reports and messages attributed to Kurtaj himself, the secure hospital was far less restrictive than prison. He is said to have had regular access to the community, time set aside for fishing, cooking and weekly shopping trips, and the ability to claim welfare benefits while detained. He reportedly boasted about the conditions, describing his time there as "amazing" and saying he was out of his cell around the clock. After the move to prison, he is said to have described the change in far blunter terms.
These accounts come largely from messages attributed to Kurtaj rather than official statements, so they should be treated with caution. Separately, reports in March 2026 said he had smuggled a phone into custody and used it to gloat about his situation.
What the November trial means
Now that he is considered fit, Kurtaj faces a conventional criminal trial over the Rockstar hack and the wider Lapsus$ campaign, which also hit companies such as Uber and Nvidia. Unlike the open-ended hospital order, a criminal conviction would normally carry a fixed sentence, so the trial will decide how his case is finally resolved.
The GTA 6 connection, and the November coincidence
The leak gave the world its first real look at GTA 6, long before Rockstar was ready to show anything. Since then the studio has revealed the game on its own terms, from the latest trailer to a wave of official screenshots and a proper look at the map of Leonida. Now the story closes its loop: Kurtaj is due in court in November 2026, the same month GTA 6 is scheduled to launch.
The GTA V source code was also posted online during the same episode, and unverified claims still circulate that a copy of the GTA 6 source code is out there somewhere. None of that has been confirmed, and it is not part of the case going to trial.
