Ex-Twitter Worker Gets 3-1/2-Year U.S. Prison Term for Spying for Saudi Arabia
A former Twitter Inc supervisor convicted of spying for Saudi Arabia with the aid of using sharing consumer facts numerous years in the past and probably exposing customers to persecution become sentenced to 3-1/2 years in jail on Wednesday, U.S. prosecutors stated. Ahmad Abouammo were discovered responsible with the aid of using a jury in August following an ordeal in federal courtroom docket in San Francisco.
Prosecutors had sought a jail time period of simply over seven years, announcing they desired a “sentence sturdy sufficient to discourage others withinside the generation and social media enterprise from promoting out the facts of prone customers.” Abouammo confronted a most penalty of many years in jail.
Abouammo`s legal professionals had requested U.S. District Judge Edward Chen for a probationary sentence at his domestic in Seattle with out a jail time. They mentioned Abouammo’s ongoing fitness problems, loss of different convictions and own circle of relatives troubles that had affected him throughout his time at Twitter, which spanned 2013 to 2015. The case targeted on Abouammo’s efforts to appearance up records on Twitter customers, a $42,000 watch he acquired from a Saudi respectable and a couple of $100,000 twine transfers.
Prosecutors stated Abouammo, who oversaw Twitter’s relationships with reporters and celebrities withinside the Middle East and North Africa, conveyed touchy records from the company’s structures to assist Saudi officers pick out and find Twitter customers of interest, probably exposing them to persecution.
Federal public defenders representing Abouammo did now no longer without delay reply to requests for comment. Twitter, currently received with the aid of using Elon Musk, and the Saudi Embassy in Washington additionally did now no longer without delay reply to requests for comment.
In their sentencing ask, legal professionals for Abouammo stated that at the same time as at Twitter, his own circle of relatives were “suffering to pay for and cope with severe upheavals in his sister`s life,” together with specialised clinical take care of her new child daughter.
The legal professionals additionally stated Abouammo’s moves paled in evaluation to the ones of Ali Alzabarah, every other ex-Twitter employee, who become accused of getting access to hundreds of Twitter debts on behalf of Saudi Arabia. Alzabarah left america earlier than being charged.
