If Ahmad Abouammo, a former Twitter executive, is convicted of divulging protected user data regarding accounts critical to Saudi Arabia, he could spend up to 20 years prison. Bloomberg reports.
Colin Sampson, assistant U.S. Attorney, is arguing that Abouammo had been given the task of maintaining a “shopping list of Twitter users”Bader Al-Asaker is a close associate. “right-hand man”Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wanted to monitor because of anti-Saudi sentiment. This would have given the opportunity for dissidents to be taken hostage and tortured. Abouammo was allegedly given $300,000 in return and a Hublot watch.
Bloomberg reports that human rights organizations cite Abouammo’s actions leading directly to dissidents being “held in secret prisons, suffering electric shocks, sleep deprivation, beatings and other forms of torture.”
Prosecutors were shown a 2015 email Abouammo sent to Twitter’s former vice president of global media Katie Jacobs Stanton and her team in which he claimed to have brought “onboard of a new government leader.”
“I have built a strong relationship with the team of HRH Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud,”Abouammo wrote. “I am working with His Majesty’s team for an official announcement for Twitter now.”
Abouammo Stanton, who was his supervisor at the time, first met the prince while dining at Saudi billionaire and royal Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud’s home. Promoting the social media platform to Saudi royals reportedly part of Abouammo’s job in finding “the world’s best content creators” and “making them successful,”Stanton spoke.
Sampson stated that Al-Asaker had recruited Abouammo (a U.S. citizen fluently in Arabic), as an agent. “an operative, a mole”To obtain email addresses, phone numbers and dates of birth for anonymous Twitter users who criticize Saudi Arabia and its royal family, we needed to get IP addresses and email addresses. Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of safety and integrity, said during the trial that Twitter offers a “robust space”Human rights activists can communicate anonymously. At the risk of exposing vulnerable people, it is possible to compromise the security of this online space.
Abouammo left Twitter to join Amazon in 2015. Jerome Matthews, his lawyer, opened the trial on Thursday with arguments that “things aren’t always as they seem”And that “context matters, looking at the whole picture matters.”Abouammo has been granted bail in Seattle by the judges. The hearing is expected to continue for approximately two weeks.
Abouammo faces charges of being an illegal foreign agent in America and obstruction of justice. This carries a maximum sentence that can be up to 20 years.
