The Associated Press reported in a report that many critics of the Saudi regime suffer from “threats” in the United States.
The report talks about an incident that happened to Dana Almeyov, where she received a message on her phone from an unknown Instagram account promising to help her get out of a $5 million lawsuit. A pro-Saudi model is omitted. against him
But the ambiguous text said that this meeting should be face to face.
It was in December 2019, a year after the murder and dismemberment of prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, that raised Al-Mayouf’s concern that he would be kidnapped and returned to Saudi Arabia like others.
“I can’t meet anyone I don’t know. Especially with all the kidnappings and murders going on,” I wrote to him.
Now, Dana is glad he didn’t attend that meeting, as US federal prosecutors have arrested the man, 42-year-old Ibrahim al-Hussein, for allegedly lying to federal authorities about using a fake account to harass, intimidate and threaten Saudis. . The dissidents — most of whom are women — are residents of the United States, Canada, the agency said.
An FBI spokesman declined to comment on the allegations. Hussein’s lawyer did not respond to multiple requests for comment, and neither did the Saudi embassy in Washington.
The complaint, filed last month in federal court in Brooklyn, refers to a broader investigation into online harassment campaigns targeting Saudi dissidents in the United States and their relatives, and is part of a transnational crackdown that authorities has worried the United States in recent years. punish their critics abroad.
Biden said he discussed the “scandalous” killing of Khashoggi with Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah and spoke “directly and bluntly” about human rights issues without elaborating.
“If this happens again, there will be backlash and more,” Biden said of the Saudi government’s efforts to target dissidents abroad.
Although some have accused Biden of reneging on his promise to put human rights at the center of his foreign policy during his trip to Saudi Arabia, Hussein’s arrest in New York has intensified efforts by federal authorities to prevent such rights abuses from occurring. Confirms on American soil. According to the Associated Press.
In 2019, US prosecutors alleged that the kingdom hired two Twitter employees to spy on thousands of user accounts of US citizens and Saudi dissidents.
“This guy is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Abdullah al-Adah, director of Gulf research at Democracy Now for the Arab World, a Washington-based rights group.
Al-Oudeh claims she was harassed by al-Hussein, although he is not named in the complaint.
He added: “This is part of a much larger campaign by the Saudi government to reach the opposition abroad.
Hossein was a graduate student at two universities in Mississippi.
But FBI Online says it used an account called (Samar 16490), an account that brutally insulted and threatened young women on Instagram with the clear goal of helping the Saudi government.
Between January 2019 and August 2020, al-Hussein had regular contact with a Saudi government employee who reported to a royal court official.
Prosecutors also said Hussain took photos of Khashoggi’s Twitter posts from a year before he was killed and kept photos of Khashoggi on his phone, showing his obsession with Saudi dissidents.
Al-Hussein was accused of lying to federal officials in three interviews between June 2021 and January 2022.
The FBI says he told investigators he did not use any media accounts other than those in his name.
Hussein’s victims regularly checked their cell phones for new waves of vicious attacks.
As women critics of the Saudi government, they said al-Hussein’s warnings were part of a powerful campaign launched by an army of social media trolls on a daily basis.
“MBS will wipe you off the face of the earth and you’ll see,” al-Hussein reportedly told activist Dana Al-Mayov, referring to the crown prince by his English initials.
He claimed that his father also threatened the fate of famous Saudi women imprisoned in the kingdom and that his messages contained many insults.
Source: Lebanon Debate
