Hamza Bendelladj is one of the most popular and richest Hacker who was born on January 1, 1988 in Algeria. A Tunisian website published a rumor in 2015 that Bendelladj was sentenced to death. The rumor was shared on social media in Algeria, and many Facebook support groups were formed in response to it. The petition was started calling for President Barack Obama and the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to intervene in his release. Joan A. Polaschik, US Ambassador to Algeria, stated on Twitter that computer crimes are not capital offenses and therefore are not subject to the death penalty.
Bendelladj has been in prison in the United States since May 2013, with the US court sentenced him on April 20, 2016 to 15 years in prison and 3 years of probation. His Russian accomplice Panin, 27, aka “Gribodemon”, was sentenced to 9 years and 6 months in prison.
After a three year chase, Bendelladj was finally captured by Thai police on January 8, 2013. He was in Bangkok as part of a transit between Malaysian and Egyptian countries. Bendelladj refused to resist being arrested. As he was taken into custody, he said goodbye to his family and his wife and their daughter continued their journey to Egypt. Because of the smile on his face when he presented all photos taken after his arrest, even though he was handcuffed, he earned the nickname “Smiling Hacker”. According to Thai police Bendelladj was one of the FBI’s top 10 most wanted criminals.
Aleksandr Andreevich Panin, his accomplice, was taken into custody at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on July 1, 2013. He pleaded guilty to the Atlanta Federal Court in January 2014.
He was extradited in May 2013 to the United States. He was tried in Atlanta where he pleaded guilty on June 25, 2015. He faced a sentence of up to 30 years in prison and a fine of fourteen million dollars.
