World News
World News It may have been an attempt to “affect” the Washington Post’s reporting.
January 22, 2020, 7: 54 PM
6 min read
United Nations authorities said they know that recommends Saudi Arabia might have tried to hack Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ phone in an effort to “influence, if not silence” the Washington Post’s reporting on the kingdom.
Bezos is the owner of the Washington Post, where Saudi dissident Jamal Khasshogi worked as a columnist prior to he was killed by Saudi federal government representatives in October 2018.
Additionally, the U.N. authorities directly connected Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the supposed hacking. Bezos and Mohammed supposedly exchanged telephone number at a dinner in Los Angeles throughout the Saudi leader’s 2018 tour of the U.S.
” The information we have received suggests the possible participation of the Crown Prince in monitoring of Mr. Bezos, in an effort to influence, if not silence, The Washington Post’s reporting on Saudi Arabia,” Agnes Callamard, U.N. Special Rapporteur on summary executions and extrajudicial killings, and David Kaye, U.N. Unique Rapporteur on flexibility of expression, said in a joint statement Wednesday.
The findings are essential amidst the “continuous examination of claims” linking the Crown Prince to Khashoggi’s murder, the U.N. authorities included.
They called for an immediate investigation by U.S. and other authorities into the hacking of Bezos’ phone, and into Mohammed’s supposed involvement in Khashoggi’s murder.
” The scenarios and timing of the hacking and surveillance of Bezos also enhance assistance for further investigation by U.S. and other appropriate authorities of the claims that the Crown Prince bought, prompted, or, at a minimum, knew planning for but stopped working to stop the objective that fatally targeted Mr. Khashoggi in Istanbul,” Callamard and Kaye stated.
Bezos’ phone was hacked at some point between May and June2018 Two close associates of Khashoggi, Yahya Assiri and Omar Abdulaziz, were also hacked utilizing the exact same Pegasus malware throughout the very same period, the officials stated.
The gruesome murder of Khashoggi at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, has roiled U.S-Saudi relations recently and caused global outrage.
Saudi Arabia’s public district attorney announced last month that 5 men have actually been sentenced to death for their functions in the killing of Khashoggi.
Ahead of the U.N.’s declaration Wednesday, the Saudi embassy in the U.S. called the reports of the kingdom hacking Bezos’ phone “ridiculous.”.
” Recent media reports that recommend the Kingdom lags a hacking of Mr. Jeff Bezos’ phone are ridiculous,” the Saudi embassy said in a tweet. “We call for an examination on these claims so that we can have all the facts out.”
Later Wednesday, Saudi’s Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, added that, “I think unreasonable is the ideal word.”.
” The idea that the crown prince would hack Jeff Bezos’ phone is absolutely silly,” he said in a video posted to twitter. “And my understanding of the U.N. report, it’s not a really a report, it’s a statement based upon a report by a private business, that has actually not been vetted by any indifferent agency.”.
” And in its own conclusions ‘no hard proof’ to validate the claims it’s making,” he added.
Meanwhile, Bezos published a photo on Twitter from a Khashoggi memorial, captioning it just: #Jamal.
