Spying story involves Twitter and former employee. US-Saudi Arabia tensions

Espionage: this is the accusation against Ahmad Abouammo – ex media partnership manager of Twitter – which between 2014 and 2015 would have transmitted personal data of users than on the social platform by Elon Musk they have published criticism of Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman which, in fact, governs the country. The man, an Egyptian living in the United States, now risks from 10 to 20 years of imprisonment for money laundering, conspiracy, electronic fraud and falsification of documents.

The accused defended himself before the jury stating that his was simply the job required by the role he held, with the aim of promoting the social media network in the Middle East and North Africa. This is not the same view of prosecutors, according to which Abouammo acted on behalf of Mohammed bin Salman with the aim of to silence the critics of his work providing the principality with the names, email addresses, telephone numbers and dates of birth of the dissidents. The man was framed by gifts received by bin Salman Bader Al-Asaker collaborator, a watch and $ 300,000 offered to the former Twitter employee as a reward.

The relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia has been quite tense for a long time, and what made matters worse was themurder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi which took place in 2018 inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. According to the investigations, Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince bin Salman (also Jeff Bezosowner of the Washington Post for which Khashoggi worked, ended up in the intelligence trap of the Middle Eastern country).

Those who defend the accused believe that there are no conditions to talk about espionage, but rather about negligence on the part of Twitter to protect user data. In addition, he says that with this sentence the US intends to make up for the bad impression made when they let slip Ali Alzabarah, a former colleague of Abouammo on Twitter, who fled to Saudi Arabia and the prime suspect of data theft. There is also a third accused, Ahmed Almutairi, considered the coordinator of the espionage activity and who, like Alzabarah, remains wanted by the American government.