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Twitter and Saudi Arabia sue in the United States after the arrest of a user

The sister of a Saudi national jailed for tweets criticizing authorities filed lawsuits in California on Wednesday against Twitter and Saudi Arabia, accusing them of collaborating for “repressive” purposes.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, directly names the powerful Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and seeks a judgment to award damages. Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, a Saudi Red Crescent worker, was arrested at his office in Riyadh by Saudi secret police in March 2018, according to his family. He was later sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The aid worker, who had studied in the United States, had created an anonymous Twitter account through which he criticized the regime and retweeted certain opposition figures.

Employee convicted of espionage

In December 2022, a San Francisco court convicted a former Twitter employee of spying for Saudi officials, while another former Twitter employee suspected of having fled to Saudi Arabia was wanted by US authorities for the same reasons.

Under the leadership of Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia is waging a sweeping crackdown on critics and dissidents, arresting activists, journalists, clerics and even members of the royal family.

Areej al-Sadhan, Abdulrahman al-Sadhan’s sister and a US citizen, claims in the complaint that she learned that the Saudi secret police had “broken (her brother’s) hand and crushed his fingers, and taunted him saying: ‘C is the hand you tweet with’

Electrocutions, whipping and isolation

The complaint also states that Abdulrahman al-Sadhan was also subjected to electrocution and whipping, and was held in solitary confinement “for several years”. Twitter and the Saudi state are accused of illegally coordinating for financial gain.

In addition, he notes that a Saudi investment fund became Twitter’s second largest shareholder after Elon Musk last year and that some of the Saudi shares were sold to the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund. Areej al-Sadhan says he has been “on constant alert” since his brother’s arrest. She says that she fears being kidnapped and living a “wake up nightmare”.

Author: JR with AFP
Source: BFM TV

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