Does a photograph show the son of Dr. Sebi on trial, purportedly for "spreading health secrets?" No, that's not true: The image of a man in an orange prison outfit is not a real photograph of the "son" of Dr. Sebi, whose real name was Alfredo Bowman and who was not a doctor but who was known for promoting questionable products and holistic practices. A reverse image search on multiple sites for the photograph returns zero matches, and the AI detection site HIVE rates the image as 97.3% likely AI-generated. There are no credible news reports of a son of Dr. Sebi being arrested or put on trial or sentenced to prison time. The account using the image sells alternative health products and is using the photo as an apparent marketing tool.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) where it was published on TikTok in mid-February 2024. It opened:
Dr. Sebi's son was SENTENCED to 155 years in prison for spreading health secrets that are GATEKEPT
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Mon Feb 26 15:26:38 2024 UTC)
The video posted on TikTok shows four slides of "natural supplements" after the image of the man in orange with the caption that he was sentenced to prison for "spreading health secrets that are GATEKEPT." The account that posted it, DivineVitals, claims to be, "🌿 Teaching Classified Health Secrets 🌿."
"Dr. Sebi," whose real name was Alfredo Bowman, was a Honduran man who died in 2016. He was not a licensed physician (archived here) and was known for promoting questionable herb-based (archived here) products and holistic practices. While the video does not identify the name of Dr. Sebi's son, a man named Victor Bowman gave an interview that was published on YouTube in December 2023, where he was identified as Dr. Sebi's son. However, there is no evidence or proof of his arrest, a trial or a sentence provided in either the TikTok post or the YouTube interview with Victor Bowman.
A Google news search (archived here) for the keywords, "Dr. sebi son victor bowman arrested" yielded no matching results.
One obvious sign the photo is fake: The hand in the lower left-hand corner of the image shows what appears to be a thumb in an impossible angle bent way out of shape:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Mon Feb 26 15:35:45 2024 UTC)
Hive Moderation rated the image 97.3 percent AI-generated, and gave the image a .0 percent chance of being real:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Mon Feb 26 15:43:12 2024 UTC)
Another post (archived here) on the same Divine Vitals account also claims "Dr. Sebi's son was SENTENCED to 155 years in prison for revealing these NATURAL HEALING SECRETS!!" but the person in the picture is different from the likeness used in the post this fact check is focusing on:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Mon Feb 26 15:48:21 2024 UTC)
The account also purported to show Australian alternative health specialist Barbara O'Neill's (archived here) daughter on trial here (archived here) but does not show the real daughter of Barbara O'Neill. This post (archived here) shows was O'Neill's daughter actually looks like.
Other Lead Stories fact checks mentioning Dr. Sebi can be found here.
