No proof Dr. Sebi’s cousin was ‘sent to life in prison’

Alfredo "Dr. Sebi" Bowman, who died in 2016 after a bout of pneumonia, is a regular subject of unfounded claims that he was killed for touting alternative diets. Now, members of his family are being targeted.

A May 1 Facebook post showed an unnamed man in an orange jumper with the text: "They want to hide the fact that Dr. Sebi’s cousin was sent to LIFE IN PRISON for revealing these gatekept health secrets."

(Screenshot from Facebook)

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

We found no evidence that Dr. Sebi’s cousin received a life sentence. No news reports, documents, or public statements from Bowman’s daughter, Kellie, addressed or supported this claim. We asked Kellie Bowman for comment but did not hear back.

We also found no evidence that the man in the photo is related to Bowman. Reverse-image search yielded no matches.

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Northwestern University computer science professor V.S. Subrahmanian and postdoctoral research fellow Marco Postiglione analyzed the image using automated and human analysis and said, "We believe this image is likely to be fake."

Siwei Lyu, acomputer science and engineering professor at the University at Buffalo, told PolitiFact, "Visual inspection confirms almost surely this image was created by AI." 

A closer look at the image reveals misshapen thumbs and fingers, a telltale sign of an image generated by artificial intelligence. Lyu also pointed out an "unnatural crevasse on the sleeves."

(Screenshot from Facebook)

There’s no proof that Bowman’s cousin was sentenced to prison for life. We rated that claim False.

RELATED: ‘Dr. Sebi,’ promoter of controversial diets, died from pneumonia. He was not killed