Users of social networking sites in the Arabic language circulated an image that was said to show the Algerian sheikh – who was famous in the world for a video showing a cat on his shoulder while he was praying – while he was in hospital in a critical condition.
The leaflet stated, “Sheikh Walid Mahsas was transferred to the hospital in a critical condition.” The leaflet was attached to a picture showing him as if he was on a hospital bed.
But this claim is not true and the picture that shows him in a hospital bed is superimposed.
The photo, in this context, reaped hundreds of posts and thousands of interactions, following the sheikh’s fame spread around the world in recent days due to a video showing a cat on his shoulder, which he treats gently, while he was leading congregational prayers in a mosque.
However, this picture circulated as of the Algerian sheikh in a compound hospital.
The real photo was published in 2011 in the Saudi newspaper Al-Riyadh, and a man appears in a hospital, in an article entitled “Cheap death… There is no vacant bed in hospitals.”
A comment was written under the photo, “A patient is lying in a hospital in the Jordanian capital, Amman.”
The promoters of the misleading news deliberately replaced the image of the patient with the image of the Algerian sheikh, in order to fabricate a story and attract interactions.
This same image was previously used in another misleading context, which was refuted by a report by the Agence France-Presse fact-checking service.
According to what was signed by the news investigation team at Agence France-Presse, this false publication appeared in this form on Saturday evening, April 8th.
However, the sheikh appeared on his Facebook page following the misleading news appeared, in a group prayer at night in the same mosque.
