Twitter employees recruited by Saudi Arabia to spy on kingdom’s critics, US prosecutors say

Two former employees of Twitter have been charged with spying on behalf of Saudi Arabia, with prosecutors alleging they used their positions to dig up personal information about critics of the kingdom.

A third person, who was not employed by Twitter but who allegedly acted as an intermediary, was also charged with spying in documents unsealed in San Francisco, where the social media giant has its headquarters.

The 26-page indictment alleges that Ahmad Abouammo, who left his job as the media partnership manager responsible for Twitter’s Middle East region in 2015, was part of a coordinated effort launched by Riyadh to look into the private data of thousands of Twitter accounts.

Among those accessed was the account of a popular journalist, Omar Abdulaziz, who subsequently became a friend of Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist and columnist who was killed last year in a Saudi consulate in Istanbul, allegedly by Saudi agents.

A second former Twitter employee, Ali Alzabarah, was also charged with spying, as was a third man, Ahmed Almutairi. Mr Abouammo is a US citizen, the other two are citizens of Saudi Arabia, according to the charging document unsealed on Wednesday.

It alleged that Mr Almutairi at one time ran a social media marketing company that did work for the Saudi royal family.

The document claims the two former employees were rewarded with a designer watch, and tens of thousands of dollars funnelled into secret bank accounts. They were charged with acting as agents of Saudi Arabia without registering with the US government.

The Saudi government had no immediate comment through its embassy in Washington.

The Associated Press said Mr Abouammo, was also charged with falsifying documents and making false statements when questioned by FBI agents at his Seattle home. The offences carry a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison if convicted.

At his appearance in Seattle federal court on Wednesday, Mr Abouammo was ordered to remain in custody pending a detention hearing set for Friday.

His lawyer, Christopher Black, declined to comment, as did Mr Abouammo’s wife, who did not give her name.

Prosecutors claimed Mr Alzabarah was recruited by flying him to Washington DC, for a private meeting with an unnamed member of the Saudi royal family.

“Within one week of returning to San Francisco, Alzabarah began to access without authorization private data of Twitter users en masse,” the complaint said.

The effort included the user data of over 6,000 Twitter users, including at least 33 usernames for which Saudi Arabian law enforcement had submitted emergency disclosure requests to Twitter, investigators said.

After being confronted by his supervisors at Twitter, Mr Alzabarah acknowledged accessing user data and said he did it out of curiosity, authorities said.

It is said Mr Alzabarah was placed on administrative leave, his work-owned laptop was seized, and he was escorted out of the office. The next day, he flew to Saudi Arabia with his wife and daughter and has not returned. Commentators pointed out that the case is of particular interest because it targets a supposed major ally whose crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has developed a warm relationship with Donald Trump.

“The criminal complaint unsealed today alleges that Saudi agents mined Twitter’s internal systems for personal information about known Saudi critics and thousands of other Twitter users,” said US attorney David Anderson. “We will not allow US companies or US technology to become tools of foreign repression in violation of US law.”

The FBI began monitoring Twitter employees as far back as 2014, according to the charging document. It informed senior executives at the end of the following year to allege the Saudi government was grooming employees.

Additional reporting by agencies