Jury finds ex-Twitter worker spied for Saudi royals

[cbabe]

Last edited Wed Aug 10, 2022, 11:34 AM - Edit history (1)

https://www.rawstory.com/jury-finds-ex-twitter-worker-spied-for-saudi-royals/

Jury finds ex-Twitter worker spied for Saudi royals

Agence France-Presse
August 10, 2022

…

"The evidence shows that, for a price and thinking no one was watching, the defendant sold his position to an insider of the crown prince," US prosecutor Colin Sampson said in final remarks to the jury.

Defense attorney Angela Chuang countered that while there certainly appeared to be a conspiracy to get revealing information about Saudi critics from Twitter, prosecutors failed to prove Abouammo was part of it.

Abouammo quit Twitter in 2015 and took a job at e-commerce titan Amazon in Seattle, where he lives, according to court documents.

Jurors deliberated for three days before finding Abouammo guilty on 6 of the 11 charges against him.

Chuang conceded to the jury that Abouammo did violate Twitter employee rules by not telling the San Francisco-based company that he had received $100,000 in cash and a watch valued at more than $40,000 from someone close to the Saudi crown prince.

Abouammo was arrested in Seattle in November of 2019.

Prosecutors accused Abouammo and fellow Twitter employee Ali Alzabarah of being enlisted by Saudi officials between late 2014 and early the following year to get private information on accounts firing off posts critical of the regime.

The then-Twitter workers could use their credentials to glean email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates and other private data to identify people behind anonymous accounts, prosecutors said

Alzabarah, a Saudi national, is being sought on a charge of failing to register in the United States as an agent of a foreign government as required by United States law, according to an FBI statement.

Chuang contended in court that prosecutors were trying to punish Abouammo for Alzabarah's actions.

"As much as the government wishes that was Mr Alzabarah sitting at the table right now, it is not," Chuang told jurors.

"And that is on them, they let Mr Alzabarah flee the country while he was under FBI surveillance."

(Data privacy: why it is important.)

https://www.democracynow.org/2022/8/10/headlines/ex_twitter_employer_convicted_for_giving_saudis_private_info_on_dissidents

One Saudi aid worker, Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, who ran a satirical Twitter account, was later abducted by the secret Saudi police, tortured and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

1. Yes, but it all ok cause they got oil! Not like they can get away with murder!...wait...