The Public Prosecutor in San Francisco, western United States, directed a list of 7 charges against the Saudi citizen Ahmed Abu Ammo, accused in the case of spying on Twitter for the Saudi authorities, including acting as an agent of a foreign country without notifying the US Department of Justice, money laundering, and tampering with evidence.
Abu Ammo, who is in US custody, pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, paving the way for his trial.
The lawsuit states that Abu Ammo, along with his compatriot Ali Al-Zubarah, a former Twitter employee, took money from a high-ranking Saudi official to access Twitter's internal systems, track down opponents and reveal their addresses and phone numbers.
If convicted, the Saudi suspect faces 20 years in prison and a fine that may exceed $ 600,000.
The Book of Blood and Oil: Badr Al-Asaker lost his espionage value to MBS because he was not careful in his communications with Ali Al-Zubarah on Twitter, and his paper was exposed early in front of the American authorities to go up on his account Saud Al-Qahtani, who had supervised spying on the princes of the interior for two years mainly.
- ZaidBenjamin Zaid Benjamin (@ ZaidBenjamin5) September 1, 2020
Badr Al-Asaker
and the book "Blood and Oil" issued the day before yesterday, Tuesday, citing official records of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), revealed how Badr Al-Asaker hacked Twitter with the help of Ahmed Abu Ammo and Ali Al-Zubarah, and Al-Asaker is the director of the office of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The book, written by Bradley Hope and Justin Chic, two Wall Street Journal correspondents, said that FBI and US intelligence had monitored Badr Al-Asaker's calls with Ahmed Abu Ammo and Ali Al Zubarah, and reported their practices related to hacking users' data.
The book states that the Saudi consul in Los Angeles, on the orders of the military, helped smuggle Al-Zubarah to Riyadh the day after he was interrogated and stopped him from working on Twitter.
The US Department of Justice decided - according to the book - not to disclose the name of Al-Asakir until the investigations are completed, coinciding with the start of the sessions, despite having all the information related to the case.
The two authors, "Al-Dam and Nut," revealed that Al-Asaker directed a request to Abu Ammo to reveal the identity of the account owner known as "Mujtahidd."
They added that Al-Zubarah had obtained "mujtahed" account information, location and phone number, and information about many activists and members of the royal family.
The book also revealed that the soldiers spent 300 thousand dollars to Abu Ammo through an account in Lebanon in exchange for his services.
The two Saudi suspects in this criminal case did not appoint lawyers to defend them ?? !!
They are "unfortunately" fleeing justice according to US laws and have arrest warrants from Counterintelligence at the FBI https://t.co/z5drVRvf18https: //t.co/52u18ki140 pic.twitter.com/oW2ZW9MrBZ
- Muhammad Jihad Al-Samman (Abu Ibrahim) (@mjsamman) September 2, 2020
The FBI and Al-
Zubarah are wanted by the US FBI as an unregistered agent working for a foreign government. On November 5, 2019, a federal arrest warrant was issued against him by the FBI, after he was charged with working for the Saudi government.
The Bureau of Investigation clarifies in a statement that the information indicates that Al-Zubarah participated in 2015 in a scheme to seize confidential data for users on the "Twitter" website, which is part of the ownership of the American company "Twitter", in order to provide it for the benefit of Saudi Arabia. IE that the stolen data includes the e-mail addresses, phone numbers and IP addresses of Saudi dissidents, critics of the Riyadh government and others.
In a related context, European Parliament member Mark Tarabella said that the European Union is monitoring the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia, and that he is aware of the existence of a violent campaign against political activists in the Kingdom and abroad.
The Group of Twenty
The European Parliament added during an electronic workshop, "Saudi Arabia cannot guarantee human rights, at a time when defenders of these rights are imprisoned."
Tarabella stressed the need for the European Union to present a project at the G20 summit, to be hosted by Saudi Arabia in November, to put pressure on the government to improve human rights conditions and protect basic freedoms in the country.
This workshop was set up by the London-based ALQST Organization for Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, in which Saudi activists and European parliamentarians discussed concrete proposals for the necessary reforms to achieve the goal of Saudi Arabia's presidency of the G20 this year.