New York, Aug 10 : Former Twitter employee Ahmad Abouammo has been found guilty by an US court for gaining access to private data in the Twitter accounts of some Twitter users and supplying the data to authorities in Saudi Arabia.Abouammo and Ali Alzabarah — two Twitter employees and two employees of Twitter — and Saudi national Ahmed Almutairi, aka Ahmed Aljbreen, were arrested in 2019 for allegedly acting as unauthorised agents of the Saudi government in the US.
Abouammo was also accused with damaging, altering or falsifying documents in an investigation conducted by the federal government.
In the San Francisco court, Abouammo has been found guilty by an indictment jury of conspiracy to commit fraud on wires, falsifying documents and money laundering , and could face as long as 20 years in prison according to the media reports in the late hours of Tuesday.
The prosecution claimed that A well-known person of Saudi Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s administration contacted Abouammo to assist in investigating his enemies.
“In the year 2018, Saudi government officials killed and dismembered Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post journalist, Virginia resident and frequent critic of the Saudi regime,” reports The Verge.
As per the complaint filed by the US Department of Justice, between November 2014 between November 2014 and May 2015, Almutairi, 30, of Saudi Arabia, and foreign officials of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia convinced Abouammo and Alzabarah to use their credentials as employees to gain access to certain information that is not public about the people who have specific Twitter accounts.
“Specifically specifically, the representatives of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Saudi Royal Family requested the private data of Twitter users who have expressed criticism of the Saudi regime.” in the complaint.
These private user details included email addresses, telephone numbers, IP addresses as well as their the dates of birth.
This information could be used to locate and identify those Twitter users who posted these tweets.
The complaint claimed that Abouammo was compensated for his nefarious conduct, which included the gift of an expensive timepiece and money.
Almutairi is believed to have organized meetings, served as a mediator and also facilitated communications between the Saudi government and the other defendants.
Abouammo was detained in Seattle, Washington in November, while Alzabarah and Almutairi may be in Saudi Arabia.
Federal warrants for their arrest have been issued.
na/
