Two U.N. human rights experts said Wednesday that there’s evidence to suggest the “possible involvement” of the Saudi crown prince in the hacking of Amazon owner Jeff Bezos, and urged a U.S. investigation.
The U.N. experts drew their conclusions based on a technical report from digital forensics analysts last year that there was a “reasonable belief” with “medium to high confidence” that Bezos “was subjected to intrusive surveillance via hacking of his phone as a result of actions attributable to the WhatsApp account used by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.”
It followed reporting by The Washington Post, which Bezos owns, on how Saudi Arabia might have been involved in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“At a time when Saudi Arabia was supposedly investigating the killing of Mr. Khashoggi, and prosecuting those it deemed responsible, it was clandestinely waging a massive online campaign against Mr. Bezos and Amazon targeting him principally as the owner of The Washington Post,” said Agnes Callamard, U.N. special rapporteur on summary executions and extrajudicial killings, and David Kaye, U.N. special rapporteur on freedom of expression.