A screenshot of a purported tweet from British MP Nadhim Zahawi about the death of child abuser and former children’s entertainer Rolf Harris in fact shows a fabricated Twitter post.
Social media accounts are circulating the screenshot which appears to show an account with the handle “@NadhimZahaw”, which is not the politician’s authentic Twitter handle (here, here and here).
The post reads: “RIP Rolf Harris, a great actor loved him in The Guns of Navarone and more recently as Dumbledore”.
Harris, who was convicted in 2014 for sexually assaulting young girls between 1969 and 1986, died aged 93 on May 10 (here).
In the history of Zahawi’s legitimate Twitter account “@NadhimZahawi” there are no tweets regarding Rolf Harris’ death (here).
The handle “@NadhimZahaw” is not active on Twitter at the time of writing (twitter.com/nadhimzahaw).
Zahawi did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
This is the latest example of a fabricated tweet attributed to the politician which Reuters has previously debunked (here).
VERDICT
Fabricated. British MP Nadhim Zahawi did not tweet “RIP Rolf Harris”. A screenshot showing the alleged tweet is from an inactive Twitter account with a different handle.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work (here) .
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.