He is American actor Ian Nelson, who is still alive
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on December 23, 2019 at 06:21
- 5 min read
- By AFP Indonesia
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The photo was published here on Facebook on November 30, 2019, and had been shared more than 2,200 times before it was deleted.
The Indonesian-language caption translated to English as:
“Innalillahi Wainnaillaihi Rojiun.
“The name of this handsome boy is Sami Abu Dyak (17 yo) a Palestinian kid who died in prison because he didn’t get the right to medical treatment..
“In his critical time he requested to spend his last days with his parents, but the cursed Israeli Army rejected it..
“So he died alone..
“So many innocent Palestinian children are locked up in prison because the Israeli Army's target is to kill them so the population of Palestinian kids as the next generation will eventually vanish..
“Cursed Israel, may God avenge to make them die in disgrace and haunted by prolonged guilt..”
Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:
The same photo with the same claim also appears on Facebook here, here and here, and has been shared hundreds of times.
The same image with similar claims in English also appears on Facebook here and here, where it has been shared hundreds of times; as well as on Twitter here and here.
“Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un” is part of a verse in the Koran recited by Muslims when calamity strikes, or when they learn of someone’s death. In English, it literally means: “Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return.”
Sami Abu Dyak, or Sami Abu Diak, was a Palestinian prisoner who died of cancer in Israeli custody on November 26, 2019. Before he died, the 36-year-old man, who had been imprisoned for 17 years, wished to spend his last days with his mother. That request was turned down by Israeli officials, Al Jazeera reported here.
The headline of the Al Jazeera report, which was published on November 26, 2019, states: “Palestinian prisoner battling cancer dies in Israeli custody”.
However, the claim is false; the boy in the photo in the misleading post is not Sami Abu Dyak.
A Google reverse image search found the same image, which was posted here on online movie database IMDb alongside the caption "Ian Michael Nelson".
Below is a screenshot of the IMDb photo:
Below is a screenshot comparison between the image in the misleading post (L) and the IMDb photo (R):
According to IMDb, Nelson is "an actor and producer, known for The Boy Next Door (2015), The Hunger Games (2012) and The Best of Me (2014)".
This Winston-Salem Journal article, published on July 13, 2019, said in part: “Nelson, 24, grew up in Winston-Salem...”
Winston-Salem is a city located in the US state of North Carolina. Here is the city’s official website.
Nelson is still alive and active on Instagram. His latest post, published on December 19, 2019, was captioned: “No shoes no problem”.
A photograph of Sami Abu Diak was published by Lebanese TV station Al-Manar in this November 26 report, which is titled: “Palestinian Detainee Dies in Israeli Prison”.
The caption of the photo reads: “Palestinian detainee Sami Abu Diak, 37, died on Tuesday in Israeli prison.”
Below is a screenshot of Abu Diak’s photo on Al-Manar’s website:
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