SAN FRANCISCO — Over the past two weeks, Ahmad Abouammo’s attorneys have described him as a loyal Twitter employee caught in the crosshairs of law enforcement while managing media partnerships in the Middle East and North Africa. Prosecutors said he misused his job to spy for Saudi Arabia.
Abuanmo’s trial headed to jury deliberations on Thursday afternoon after prosecutors and defense attorneys provided accounts of the former Twitter employee’s duel. He is accused of obtaining dissident personal information and sharing it with Saudi Arabia in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars and luxury watches.
In 2019, Abouammo was arrested and charged with committing wire fraud and failing to disclose that he was acting as an agent for a foreign government. Ali Alzabara, a former colleague of Abouanmo who fled the country, was also charged.
“Power. Greed. Lies. You’ve heard this story told by the evidence in this courtroom,” said U.S. Assistant Attorney Eric Chen.
Prosecutors said the conspiracy began when Abuanmo met Bader Bina Sakel, the top adviser to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Binasaker was acting as a foreign government official at the time, and Abouammo knew about it, prosecutors said. They continued to communicate with each other and later met in London, where Mr. Vinasakar presented Mr. Abuanmo with a luxury watch.
“The kingdom has now secured a Twitter insider,” Chen said.
In the months that followed, Abuanmo used Twitter tools to identify users, including the pseudonym Mujtahid, who was a critic of the Saudi government and whose Twitter account Binasakar had sought to suspend, according to prosecutors. accessed the information. In return for access to the information, Abouammo received a wire transfer from Binasaker, prosecutors said.
In effect, Saudi Arabia “paid for the mole,” Chen said.
But Abuanmo’s lawyers insisted he was just a Twitter employee at work, not a Saudi spy. Angela Chuan, the federal public defender representing Abuanmo and the lead attorney in the case, said the prosecutor “experienced taking pictures specifically out of context and combining them to create the picture they wanted you to see.” He said that he used “fragmented”.
According to Abouammo’s lawyers, Abouammo’s Twitter duties included building relationships with prominent figures in the Middle East and investigating accounts with persistent complaints, such as those of Mujtahidd. rice field. His lawyers said Abouammo fulfilled these obligations, but the government had no evidence that he subsequently shared user information with Binasaker.
“Just because it may have been viewed does not mean that personal information has been passed on to someone else,” Chuan said.
Abouammo’s attorney also linked Binasaker to former colleague Alzabarah, but said he was not involved in any schemes between the two. Abouammo was not held responsible for Alzabarah’s actions, his lawyer said.
“A referral is not the same as a conspiracy,” Chuang said.
