US authorities have accused two Twitter employees and a staff member of the Saudi Arabian royal family of spying for Riyadh. The Federal Bureau of Investigation filed a suit Wednesday in San Francisco, accusing the three men of "acting as agents" for Saudi Arabia.
According to the FBI, the allegations stem from an investigation that lasted several years, centered on the Arab oil kingdom's efforts to identify and silence opponents on social media. In 2015, the Saudi government reportedly caught up with Ali Alzabarah, a 35-year-old network engineer who worked for Twitter, who lived in San Francisco. The complaint alleges that Ahmed Almutairi (also known as Ahmed Aljbreen), who worked as a "social media consultant" for the royal family of Saudi Arabia, arranged a meeting of Ali Alzabarah in Washington to meet a non-Saudi dynasty member. .
Alzabarah, along with another Twitter employee, 41-year-old Ahmad Abouammo, received money and gifts from the Saudi government in exchange for providing private information on specific Twitter users. The information provided by the two Twitter employees to the Saudi authorities allegedly included the email addresses, IP addresses and birthdates of some 6.000 Twitter users, who had posted negative comments about the Saudi royal family on social media.
Special agents from the FBI Settle Field Office arrested Abouammo at his Seattle home on Tuesday. However, it is believed that Alzabarah fled the United States along with his family before the FBI was able to arrest him. He is currently believed to be wanted in Saudi Arabia on an international arrest warrant from the FBI. The Saudi government has not commented on the affair.
