DUBAI: 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 style mannequin.
However, the thriller texter mentioned, they needed to meet in particular person.
It was December 2019, a yr after the killing and dismemberment of outstanding US-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi on the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, and al-Mayouf feared presumably 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. US federal prosecutors have arrested the person, 42-year-old Ibrahim Alhussayen, on costs of mendacity to federal officers about utilizing the faux account to hurt and threaten Saudi critics — largely girls — residing within the US 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 criticism unsealed final month in federal court docket in Brooklyn factors to a wider investigation into on-line harassment campaigns focusing on Saudi dissidents within the US and their family members — 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 yr, as an illustration, the Justice Division revealed a plot by operatives performing on behalf of the Chinese language authorities to stalk, harass and surveil dissidents within the US
The criticism 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 menace to the dominion’s safety.
Nevertheless, the 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 accountable for Khashoggi’s killing.
From Jeddah, Biden mentioned he raised Khashoggi’s “outrageous” homicide with Prince Mohammed and was “simple 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 together with his journey to the dominion, the arrest of Alhussayen in New York underscores that federal officers are more and more scrambling to forestall these rights abuses from occurring on US soil .
The dominion’s marketing campaign to silence criticism has performed out in America for a while.
In 2019, US prosecutors alleged Saudi Arabia recruited two Twitter staff to spy on hundreds 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’s not named within the criticism.
“It’s a a lot bigger marketing campaign by the Saudi authorities to succeed in individuals exterior.”
Alhussayen was a graduate scholar at two universities in Mississippi. However on-line, the FBI says he was “@samar16490,” an account that ruthlessly insulted and threatened younger girls 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 court docket.
Prosecutors additionally mentioned Alhussayen had taken screenshots of Khashoggi’s Twitter posts courting again a yr earlier than his loss of life and stored pictures of Khashoggi on his cellphone this yr, 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 advised investigators he didn’t use any social media accounts apart from these in his personal identify.
Alhussayen’s victims routinely checked their telephones to find new waves of vitriolic assaults.
As girls vital of the Saudi authorities, they mentioned Alhussayen’s warnings had been a part of a robust marketing campaign unleashed every day by a military of social media trolls.
“MBS will wipe you off the face of the earth, you will notice,” Alhussayen reportedly advised al-Mayouf, the Saudi activist, referring to the crown prince by his initials.
He allegedly threatened al-Mayuf with the destiny of well-known Saudi girls imprisoned within the kingdom, filling his texts with expletives.
From New York, al-Mayuf hosts a preferred YouTube present that delivers biting takes on Saudi-related present occasions and criticises outstanding officers.
For her and some different victims, there have been indicators that Alhussayen’s intentions went past inflicting offense.
After al-Mayyouf rejected his assist with the lawsuit and refused to fulfill, he lashed out. He tried to acquire her location, the court docket submitting mentioned, “to surveil and additional harass” her in particular person.
The criticism didn’t elaborate.
“I do consider a few of them are right here, within the US,” she mentioned of on-line bullies who flood her and her American fiancé with loss of life threats every day. “I’m afraid one thing would possibly occur to me.”
She and her fiancé moved after pro-government accounts posted their dwelling deal with on Twitter.
Moudi Aljohania outstanding Saudi girls’s rights activist who petitioned for the asylum within the US, additionally believes Alhussayen was attempting to realize her belief and lure her right into a face-to-face.
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 dad and mom 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 faux 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 advised 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 “honour killing” within the kingdom in 2020.
In recent times, Aljohani has shunned publicizing her vital 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, stay in worry of their authorities’s attain.
“The Saudis are paying massive 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 protected.”
However, the thriller texter mentioned, they needed to meet in particular person.
It was December 2019, a yr after the killing and dismemberment of outstanding US-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi on the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, and al-Mayouf feared presumably 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. US federal prosecutors have arrested the person, 42-year-old Ibrahim Alhussayen, on costs of mendacity to federal officers about utilizing the faux account to hurt and threaten Saudi critics — largely girls — residing within the US 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 criticism unsealed final month in federal court docket in Brooklyn factors to a wider investigation into on-line harassment campaigns focusing on Saudi dissidents within the US and their family members — 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 yr, as an illustration, the Justice Division revealed a plot by operatives performing on behalf of the Chinese language authorities to stalk, harass and surveil dissidents within the US
The criticism 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 menace to the dominion’s safety.
Nevertheless, the 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 accountable for Khashoggi’s killing.
From Jeddah, Biden mentioned he raised Khashoggi’s “outrageous” homicide with Prince Mohammed and was “simple 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 together with his journey to the dominion, the arrest of Alhussayen in New York underscores that federal officers are more and more scrambling to forestall these rights abuses from occurring on US soil .
The dominion’s marketing campaign to silence criticism has performed out in America for a while.
In 2019, US prosecutors alleged Saudi Arabia recruited two Twitter staff to spy on hundreds 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’s not named within the criticism.
“It’s a a lot bigger marketing campaign by the Saudi authorities to succeed in individuals exterior.”
Alhussayen was a graduate scholar at two universities in Mississippi. However on-line, the FBI says he was “@samar16490,” an account that ruthlessly insulted and threatened younger girls 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 court docket.
Prosecutors additionally mentioned Alhussayen had taken screenshots of Khashoggi’s Twitter posts courting again a yr earlier than his loss of life and stored pictures of Khashoggi on his cellphone this yr, 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 advised investigators he didn’t use any social media accounts apart from these in his personal identify.
Alhussayen’s victims routinely checked their telephones to find new waves of vitriolic assaults.
As girls vital of the Saudi authorities, they mentioned Alhussayen’s warnings had been a part of a robust marketing campaign unleashed every day by a military of social media trolls.
“MBS will wipe you off the face of the earth, you will notice,” Alhussayen reportedly advised al-Mayouf, the Saudi activist, referring to the crown prince by his initials.
He allegedly threatened al-Mayuf with the destiny of well-known Saudi girls imprisoned within the kingdom, filling his texts with expletives.
From New York, al-Mayuf hosts a preferred YouTube present that delivers biting takes on Saudi-related present occasions and criticises outstanding officers.
For her and some different victims, there have been indicators that Alhussayen’s intentions went past inflicting offense.
After al-Mayyouf rejected his assist with the lawsuit and refused to fulfill, he lashed out. He tried to acquire her location, the court docket submitting mentioned, “to surveil and additional harass” her in particular person.
The criticism didn’t elaborate.
“I do consider a few of them are right here, within the US,” she mentioned of on-line bullies who flood her and her American fiancé with loss of life threats every day. “I’m afraid one thing would possibly occur to me.”
She and her fiancé moved after pro-government accounts posted their dwelling deal with on Twitter.
Moudi Aljohania outstanding Saudi girls’s rights activist who petitioned for the asylum within the US, additionally believes Alhussayen was attempting to realize her belief and lure her right into a face-to-face.
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 dad and mom 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 faux 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 advised 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 “honour killing” within the kingdom in 2020.
In recent times, Aljohani has shunned publicizing her vital 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, stay in worry of their authorities’s attain.
“The Saudis are paying massive 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 protected.”
