GTA 6 Leaker Arion Kurtaj Faces Trial on November 9, Ten Days Before Launch

The GTA 6 leaker trial is set to begin on November 9 , 2026, according to a report from Game Rant. The man in the dock is Arion Kurtaj, the former Lapsus$ hacker who broke into Rockstar Games in September 2022 and dumped roughly 90 clips of an early Grand Theft Auto VI build online. If that date holds, he will face a jury ten days before the game he leaked lands on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 19, 2026 .

It has taken a while to get here. Kurtaj spent most of the last three years in a secure psychiatric hospital after doctors said he was unfit to stand trial. This summer, that changed.

When Does the GTA 6 Leaker Trial Start?

Game Rant puts the start date at Monday, November 9. We could not match that day to a public court listing, and neither the Crown Prosecution Service nor Rockstar has commented, so treat the exact date as reported. The month is solid.

On July 14, 2026, a High Court judge lifted reporting restrictions on the case. BBC cyber correspondent Joe Tidy then confirmed that Kurtaj had left hospital, was being held in a regular prison and would face a conventional criminal trial in November. Police have said almost nothing. Tidy told gHacks that getting answers out of them was “like getting blood out of a stone.”

The charge sheet hasn’t been made public either. Back in 2023, a jury found Kurtaj had committed 12 offences, among them unauthorised computer access , blackmail and fraud. Nobody has said yet whether the new indictment mirrors that list.

Why Is Arion Kurtaj Going on Trial Again?

His first case never ended in a conviction.

Psychiatrists told the court in 2023 that Kurtaj’s autism left him unable to take part in a normal trial. So the jury at Southwark answered a narrower question: did he carry out the acts? In August 2023, after a trial lasting two months, it said yes. A finding like that cannot produce a guilty verdict. It opened the door to a hospital order instead, and in December 2023 the judge sent Kurtaj to a secure hospital with no end date, saying he posed “a high risk of serious harm to the public through skill in gaining unfettered access to computers”. A mental health report read in court said he “continued to express the intention to return to cyber-crime as soon as possible.”

UK law has a route back to court for exactly this situation. Under section 5A(4) of the Criminal Procedure (Insanity) Act 1964 , when someone on a restricted hospital order becomes fit to be tried, the Justice Secretary can send them to the trial court or to a prison after consulting their clinician. The hospital order ends the moment they arrive. Reports haven’t named the exact order Kurtaj was under, but the sequence matches what happened. Doctors judged him fit. He went to prison to wait.

Kurtaj seems to agree on who made the call. In Snapchat posts reported by RockstarINTEL in March, an account under his name claimed Justice Secretary David Lammy “decided to send him back.” Those posts are unverified.

A quick word on wording. A lot of coverage calls this a “retrial.” Strictly, November will be Kurtaj’s first full criminal trial, because the 2023 hearing never ruled on guilt.

What Did Kurtaj Do to Rockstar in 2022?

He hacked one of the most secretive studios in gaming from a budget hotel room.

He also tried to squeeze the studio. One message read out in court said: “if Rockstar does not me on Telegram within 24 hours I will start releasing the source code.” Rockstar told the court the breach cost it $5 million and thousands of staff hours to clean up.

Rockstar was one target among many. The Lapsus$ spree that Kurtaj and a younger co-defendant were tied to hit Nvidia, Uber, BT and EE (with a £3.1 million ransom demand), Revolut, Microsoft, Samsung and Okta. The co-defendant, who was 17 and can’t be named, received a youth rehabilitation order.

GTA 6 Hack Case Timeline

Is Kurtaj Linked to the 2026 Cyberleek Leaks?

Nothing public connects them. Kurtaj has been locked up the whole time.

The 2026 leaks come from an anonymous account called Cyberleek, which started posting GTA 6 footage in August. If you missed that saga, our explainer on who Cyberleek is and how the leaks started covers the basics. Take-Two went to federal court in New York to unmask the account, and a judge signed off on subpoenas ordering Microsoft and Discord to hand over account data .

So far, the paper trail has led nowhere visible. Cyberleek dropped another 25 minutes of unverified GTA 6 gameplay on October 8 , and claims that the leaker was caught in Germany did not stand up when we fact-checked the Nuremberg arrest rumour . For now, the Kurtaj case is the only GTA 6 leak prosecution with a court date.

What Happens After the Trial?

If a jury convicts him, Kurtaj would be sentenced under ordinary criminal rules, and the court can still weigh medical evidence his autism when it decides what that sentence looks like. An acquittal on some counts is possible too. We will know more once the charges are read out.

Rockstar and Take-Two have stayed quiet the case, and with launch day so close, don’t expect that to change. We’ll update this story when the trial opens.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the GTA 6 leaker trial?

Game Rant reports that Arion Kurtaj’s trial starts on November 9, 2026. The BBC confirmed in July that it would take place in November, but no public court listing for the exact day has been found yet.

Who is the GTA 6 leaker going on trial?

Arion Kurtaj, a British hacker linked to the Lapsus$ group. He was 17 when he hacked Rockstar Games in September 2022 and leaked 90 clips of GTA 6.

Why wasn’t Kurtaj convicted in 2023?

Psychiatrists found him unfit to stand trial, so the jury only decided whether he committed the acts. That kind of hearing cannot convict anyone. He was sent to a secure hospital indefinitely instead.

Is Arion Kurtaj the same person as Cyberleek?

There is no evidence of that. Kurtaj has been held in a hospital or prison since before the 2026 Cyberleek leaks began, and Cyberleek’s identity has not been made public.

Will the trial delay GTA 6?

Nothing suggests it will. The trial is a criminal case against Kurtaj, and Rockstar still lists GTA 6 for November 19, 2026.