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Former Twitter employee sentenced to more than three years in prison in Saudi spy case | CNN Politics

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A former Twitter supervisor convicted of spying for Saudi Arabia was sentenced on Wednesday to greater than three years in jail.

Ahmad Abouammo, a twin US-Lebanese citizen, was convicted earlier this 12 months of six felony counts, together with appearing as an agent for Saudi Arabia and attempting to disguise a cost from an official tied to the nation’s royal household.

US District Decide Edward Chen in San Francisco sentenced Abouammo to 42 months in federal jail and ordered him to pay $242,000 to cowl the price of bribes he acquired for his work, the DOJ mentioned in an announcement. Abouammo will start his jail sentence in March.

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CNN has reached out to an lawyer for Abouammo for remark.

Throughout his sentencing, Chen mentioned that “exposing dissident info is a severe offense,” and referred to as Abouammo’s actions “severe” and “consequential,” in line with the DOJ.

“This sentence sends a message to insiders with entry to person info to safeguard it, significantly from repressive regimes, or threat vital time in jail,” US Legal professional Stephanie Hinds mentioned in an announcement.

Abouammo, who at Twitter helped oversee relationships with journalists and celebrities within the Center East and North Africa, was discovered responsible in August after a 2-1/2 week trial in San Francisco federal court docket.

Prosecutors mentioned Bader Al-Asaker, an in depth adviser to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, recruited Abouammo to make use of his insider information to entry Twitter accounts and dig up private details about Saudi dissidents.

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These accounts allegedly included @mujtahidd, a pseudonym for a political agitator who gained thousands and thousands of Twitter followers within the Arab Spring uprisings by accusing the Saudi royal household of corruption and different misdeeds.

Prosecutors mentioned Abouammo acquired a minimum of $300,000 and a $20,000 luxurious watch from Al-Asaker, and hid the cash by depositing it in a relative’s account in Lebanon and having it wired to his personal account in america.

Abouammo’s attorneys had argued that the work Abouammo did at Twitter was merely a part of his job.

Abouammo was additionally convicted of wire fraud and sincere companies fraud, cash laundering and a conspiracy cost. Jurors acquitted him on 5 of the 11 counts he confronted.

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