Prosecutors said Bader Al-Asaker, a close adviser to Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, recruited Abouammo to use his insider knowledge to access Twitter accounts and dig up personal information about Saudi dissidents. Those accounts allegedly included @mujtahidd, a pseudonym for a political agitator who gained millions of Twitter followers in the Arab Spring uprisings by accusing the Saudi royal family of corruption and other misdeeds. Defense lawyers argued that the work Abouammo did at Twitter was simply part of his job. Ali Alzabarah, a former colleague of Abouammo also accused of accessing Twitter accounts on behalf of Saudi Arabia, left the United States before being charged. Al-Asaker, Saudi's crown prince and Twitter are not among the defendants.

Source: The North Africa Journal August 10, 2022 20:05 UTC