Italian journalist, spreading fake news and interviews all his life, made up news that Mladic died

The news that the Serb Republic Army General Ratko Mladic died in The Hague set the media in the region on fire. After the chaos that arose from the information that he had passed away, it turned out to be fake news. And when you realize who created it...

Namely, information about Mladic's reported death came from a Twitter account allegedly owned by Bosnian Foreign Minister Bisera Turkovic, which turned out to be false.

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The President of the International Court of Justice A.A.Yusuf confirms me now the news of the death of war criminal Ratko Mladić.— Bisera Turković (@BTurkovicBH) February 11, 2020

The tweet reads as follows: "The President of the International Court of Justice A.A.Yusuf confirms me now the news of the death of war criminal Ratko Mladić."

However, about half an hour after the first tweet on the same account, a new one appeared, this one saying, "This account is hoax created by the Italian journalist Tommasso Debenedetti."

This account is hoax created by the Italian journalist Tommasso Debenedetti.— Bisera Turković (@BTurkovicBH) February 11, 2020

It has been confirmed that this is a false account claiming to represent the BiH foreign minister.

"I don't have a Twitter profile. Absolutely none of it is true. This is a fake Twitter. Someone made it fake," said Turkovic.

The fake account was created in January this year, and the first tweet was posted on Monday, February 10.

There are several accounts on Twitter of Bisere Turkovic, one of them created back in 2009, but that one has only one tweet posted the same year.

Who is Tommasso Debenedetti?

Tommasso Debenedetti is an Italian journalist and professor in Rome who has become famous for publishing fake news including many fake interviews that have been carried by the Italian media for decades.

Since 2011, he has made multiple false accounts representing world leaders on Twitter. One of his "news" was that the pope had died. He later "buried" both Castro and Almodovar.

His tweets spread like a plague on social networks, which is why he became known as the most influential fake news Twitter user.

"Twitter is good for deaths," Debenedetti said once, explaining that he was releasing fake news to prove how unreliable the social network is as a source.

On Twitter, he also made false accounts representing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Ratko Mladic's son told Telegraf.rs immediately after the fake news on Twitter appeared that it was not true that his father had passed away.

(M. Lj.)