US authorities have suspended the bail of a former Twitter employee accused of spying for Saudi Arabia, Ahmed Abu Amo, after prosecutors appealed the decision.
A federal prosecutor in Seattle, Washington, had decided to release Abu Amo on bail pending trial and travel restrictions, but the decision was suspended after prosecutors filed an appeal, a Reuters spokeswoman said.
Abu Amo, a US citizen, must remain in custody until a judge in another court considers his bail.
The only detainee in the case
The Seattle court judge issued the release after Abu Amo appeared in court on Friday. He was arrested by US authorities on Tuesday and charged with spying on the following day.
The US Justice Department unveiled the case on Thursday, accusing former Twitter employees Ahmed Abu Amo, 41, and Saudi Ali Al Zubara, 35, of spying for Saudi Arabia and illegally obtaining personal information about Twitter users who criticize the kingdom.
A third person, 30-year-old Saudi Ahmed al-Mutairi, was charged by authorities with being Riyadh's envoy to former employees. Zubara and al-Mutairi are still at large in Saudi Arabia.
A three-year jail sentence and a $ 250,000 fine, Abu Ammo faces an additional 20-year sentence and a $ 250,000 fine for destroying, changing or falsifying records, a Justice Ministry statement said.
Abu Amo appears to have spied on many accounts between the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015, for a luxury watch and at least $ 300,000.
In 2015, Ali al-Zubara provided data on at least 6,000 accounts, particularly about a Saudi dissident whose family had sought refuge in Canada, according to the indictment.
"The criminal complaint disclosed today (Thursday) accuses Saudis of searching Twitter's internal systems in order to obtain personal information about Saudi dissidents and thousands of Twitter users," US Attorney General David Anderson said in a statement.
"US laws protect American companies from such illegal penetration, and we will not allow the exploitation of US companies or technology," he said. Twitter opponents of the Saudi government.
The case points to unusual public accusations against US ally Saudi Arabia, which has good relations with US President Donald Trump, despite what rights groups are raising over the kingdom's human rights restrictions and the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The accusations also once again shed light on Silicon Valley technology companies on how they protect the private personal information they collect about their users, including from employees for whom there is no legitimate reason to share it.