Ahmed Benyahia and Youssef Abraoui were falsely identified online as the men responsible for an 83-year-old woman’s death in Burgos. Their images reached hundreds of thousands of users, and their families are seeking an end to the circulation.
Ahmed Benyahia was visiting a friend’s mother in a Barcelona hospital when he learned that his photograph was being shared alongside claims that he had killed an 83-year-old woman. The posts spread rapidly. They reached hundreds of thousands of users.
Ahmed, 20, studies a higher-level course in Social Integration in Barcelona. Youssef Abraoui, 29, works as a taxi driver in Manresa. They had never met before their photographs began circulating together, and neither had any connection to the assault in Burgos that led to Rosario Sánchez’s death.
Sánchez, whose full name was María Rosario Sánchez, was found dead in her home in the Gamonal district of Burgos on 14 October 2026. She was 83 and had been bound and gagged. Police arrested two minors, aged 16 and 17, on suspicion of involvement in her death during a robbery. Investigators considered whether the attackers had gained entry using a pretext that led Sánchez to open the door.
The false identification began on Saturday, according to a reconstruction published by El País. An account on X shared an Europa Press report about the arrest of the two minors, then added photographs of Ahmed and Youssef and falsely presented them as the perpetrators. Other profiles reposted the images. The posts also attached invented names and ages to the men, claiming they were naturalised foreign nationals. Police told fact-checking outlet Newtral.es that the claims were false and that the people arrested were not the men in the photographs.
Ahmed said the discovery left him anxious. Some people who knew him questioned whether the accusation might be true, so he contacted them to deny it. That night, he went to a Barcelona police station to report what had happened.
Youssef was asleep after finishing work when a neighbour came to his door. His phone had been in aeroplane mode. When he switched it on, he found messages accusing him of killing a woman in Burgos. His sister Salma, a lawyer, began saving screenshots of posts using his photograph. The family said it would file a complaint in Manresa.
The two minors arrested in Burgos were transferred to the duty juvenile prosecutor, who was to consider whether precautionary measures were needed, including possible placement in a juvenile facility. The case was being handled within the juvenile justice system. Local media also made identification errors and later issued a correction. That did not stop the images circulating: posts continued to appear days later. Salma has accused far-right profiles, including accounts associated with Núcleo Nacional and Revuelta, of fuelling hatred and putting the safety of two innocent people at risk.
In a public post, Salma warned that deleting a publication or admitting an error would not undo the exposure. She said her family feared that someone might recognise Youssef in the street and confront or attack him. She has called for the images to stop circulating and for those responsible to be held accountable. She also pointed to racist messages that accompanied some of the posts.
After Salma’s post, Ahmed contacted her and spoke with Youssef by phone. Both have received insults and messages falsely linking them to the killing. A separate Catalonia report covered the search for a flood victim at Cabrera de Mar port; it concerned different events and people.
The Burgos murder investigation remains separate from the online accusations. Ahmed and Youssef were not responsible for the assault, and the identities assigned to them on social media were false. Their families are calling for the photographs to be taken down and responsibility to be established.
