Arrest of Saudi for lying to FBI shows kingdom’s reach in US

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — It started with a message that appeared on Danah al-Mayouf’s cellphone from an nameless Instagram account — a promise to assist her “crush” a $5 million lawsuit she confronted from a pro-government Saudi trend mannequin.

However, the thriller texter mentioned, she needed to meet him in individual.

It was December 2019, a 12 months after the killing and dismemberment of outstanding U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi on the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, and al-Mayouf feared probably being kidnapped and brought again to the dominion like others.

“I can’t meet somebody I don’t know,” al-Mayouf in the end responded. “Particularly with all of the kidnappings and killings.”

Now, she’s glad she didn’t go. U.S. federal prosecutors have arrested the person behind the messages, 42-year-old Ibrahim Alhussayen, on costs of mendacity to federal officers about utilizing the pretend account to harass and threaten Saudi critics — principally ladies — dwelling within the U.S. and Canada.

A spokesperson for the FBI declined to touch upon the costs. A lawyer for Alhussayen didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark, nor did the Saudi Embassy in Washington.

A grievance unsealed final month in federal courtroom in Brooklyn factors to a wider investigation into on-line harassment campaigns concentrating on Saudi dissidents within the U.S. and their kin — a part of a pattern of transnational repression that has alarmed American authorities lately as varied autocratic governments search to punish critics abroad.

Earlier this 12 months, as an example, the Justice Division revealed a plot by operatives performing on behalf of the Chinese language authorities to stalk, harass and surveil dissidents within the U.S.

The grievance comes as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman continues to clamp down on opposition, each within the kingdom and overseas, whereas working to burnish a picture as a liberal reformer. The Saudi authorities has maintained up to now that its critics incite violence, broadly outlined, and pose a risk to the dominion’s safety.

Nonetheless, President Joe Biden met — and shared a cordial fist-bump with — Prince Mohammed at a diplomatic summit final week in Saudi Arabia.

The scenes drew scathing criticism from fellow Democrats and rights teams after Biden had vowed to deal with the dominion like a “pariah” and deemed Prince Mohammed liable for Khashoggi’s killing.

From Jeddah, Biden mentioned he raised Khashoggi’s “outrageous” homicide with Prince Mohammed and was “easy and direct” about human rights points, with out elaborating.

“If something like that happens once more,” Biden mentioned of Saudi authorities efforts to focus on dissidents overseas, “they’ll get that response and way more.”

Whereas some accuse Biden of abandoning his promise to place human rights on the coronary heart of his international coverage along with his journey to the dominion, the arrest of Alhussayen in New York underscores that federal officers are more and more scrambling to stop these rights abuses from occurring on U.S. soil.

The dominion’s marketing campaign to silence criticism has performed out in America for a while. In 2019, U.S. prosecutors alleged Saudi Arabia recruited two Twitter workers to spy on 1000’s of accounts together with these of Americans and Saudi dissidents.

“This man is simply the tip of the iceberg,” mentioned Abdullah Alaoudh, Gulf analysis director for Democracy for the Arab World Now, a Washington-based human rights watchdog. Alaoudh alleges he was additionally harassed by Alhussayen though he isn’t named within the grievance. “It’s a a lot bigger marketing campaign by the Saudi authorities to achieve individuals outdoors.”

Alhussayen was a graduate pupil at two universities in Mississippi. However on-line, the FBI says he was “@samar16490,” an account that ruthlessly insulted and threatened younger ladies on Instagram with the obvious intention of aiding the Saudi authorities.

Between January 2019 and August 2020, he allegedly maintained common contact with a Saudi authorities worker who reported to an official on the royal courtroom.

Prosecutors additionally mentioned Alhussayen had taken screenshots of Khashoggi’s Twitter posts courting again a 12 months earlier than his demise and stored photographs of Khashoggi on his cellphone this 12 months, revealing an obsession with Saudi dissidents.

Alhussayen was charged with mendacity to federal authorities throughout three interviews between June 2021 and January 2022. The FBI says he instructed investigators he didn’t use any social media accounts aside from these in his personal identify.

Alhussayen’s victims routinely checked their telephones to find new waves of vitriolic assaults. As ladies crucial of the Saudi authorities, they mentioned Alhussayen’s warnings had been a part of a robust marketing campaign unleashed by legions of social media trolls.

“MBS will wipe you off the face of the earth, you will note,” Alhussayen reportedly instructed al-Mayouf, the Saudi activist, referring to the crown prince by his initials.

He allegedly threatened al-Mayouf with the destiny of well-known Saudi ladies imprisoned within the kingdom, filling his texts with expletives.

From New York, al-Mayouf hosts a preferred YouTube present that delivers biting takes on Saudi-related present occasions and criticizes outstanding officers.

For her and some different victims, there have been indicators that Alhussayen’s intentions went past inflicting offense.

After al-Mayouf rejected his assist with the lawsuit and refused to fulfill, he lashed out. He tried to acquire her location, the courtroom submitting mentioned, “to surveil and additional harass” her in individual. The grievance didn’t elaborate.

“I do consider a few of them are right here, within the U.S.,” she mentioned of on-line bullies who flood her and her American fiancé with demise threats every day. “I’m afraid one thing may occur to me.”

She and her fiancé moved after pro-government accounts posted their house tackle on Twitter.

Moudi Aljohani, a outstanding Saudi ladies’s rights activist who petitioned for asylum within the U.S, additionally believes Alhussayen was attempting to realize her belief and lure her right into a face-to-face assembly.

After talking out on social media in opposition to the nation’s male guardianship system, Aljohani fled the dominion and the stifling grip of her mother and father in 2016. She fears her household will kill her if she returns.

Aljohani mentioned she was shaken when Alhussayen reached out in 2020 from his pretend Instagram account with a cryptic image of her shut member of the family.

However she, too, earned his ire when she didn’t reply. Alhussayen allegedly instructed her he needed to spit in her face. He mentioned he hoped she met the identical destiny as Nada al-Qahtani, a Saudi lady who was fatally shot by her brother in a so-called “honor killing” within the kingdom in 2020.

In recent times, Aljohani has avoided publicizing her crucial opinions of the federal government due to what she described as a relentless smear marketing campaign.

However a decrease political profile hasn’t helped. She, and the others, reside in concern of their authorities’s attain.

“The Saudis are paying huge cash to repair their picture and the best way they see it, we’re ruining it for them,” Aljohani mentioned. “I really feel like there’s no place that’s secure.”

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Related Press author Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.