Ex-Twitter employee sentenced to three and a half years for espionage

A former Twitter employee found guilty of spying for Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison in a San Francisco federal court. According to Reutersthe prosecution requested seven years in prison for Ahmad Abuammo, arguing that “a sentence so severe as to deter others in the tech and social media industry from selling vulnerable user data” is needed.

Ahmad Abuammo, who worked at Twitter from 2013-2015, was recognized guilty of spying on Saudi dissidents and handing over their personal data to the Saudi Arabian authorities. Together with a colleague, he took advantage of their access to more than 6,000 Twitter user accounts. As a reward for this work, Ahmad Abuammo received more than $300,000 and an expensive watch from the Saudi authorities.

The transfer of personal data of users, including dissidents, according to the prosecution, made them vulnerable to persecution by the Saudi authorities. Among the accounts that Ahmad Abuammo handed over was that of Omar Abdulaziz, a dissident and confidant of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in whose murder the Saudi authorities are suspected.

Alena Miklashevskaya