It began with a message that appeared on Danah al-Mayouf\u2019s phone from an anonymous Instagram account \u2014 a promise to help her \u201ccrush\u201d a $5 million lawsuit she faced from a pro-government Saudi fashion model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, the mystery texter said, she had to meet him in person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was December 2019, a year after the killing and\u00a0dismemberment of prominent U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi\u00a0at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, and al-Mayouf feared possibly being kidnapped and\u00a0taken back to the kingdom like others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI can\u2019t meet someone I don\u2019t know,\u201d al-Mayouf ultimately responded. \u201cEspecially with all the kidnappings and killings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, she\u2019s glad she didn\u2019t go. U.S. federal prosecutors have arrested the man behind the messages, 42-year-old Ibrahim Alhussayen, on charges of lying to federal officials about using the fake account to harass and threaten Saudi critics \u2014 mostly women \u2014 living in the U.S. and Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A spokesperson for the FBI declined to comment on the charges. A lawyer for Alhussayen did not respond to multiple requests for comment, nor did the Saudi Embassy in Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A complaint unsealed last month in federal court in Brooklyn points to a wider investigation into online harassment campaigns targeting Saudi dissidents in the U.S. and their relatives \u2014 part of a trend of transnational repression that has alarmed American authorities in recent years as various autocratic governments seek to punish critics overseas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier this year, for instance, the Justice Department revealed a plot by operatives acting on behalf of the\u00a0Chinese government to stalk, harass and surveil dissidents\u00a0in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The complaint comes as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman continues to clamp down on opposition, both in the kingdom and abroad, while working to burnish an image as a liberal reformer. The Saudi government has maintained in the past that its critics incite violence, broadly defined, and pose a threat to the kingdom’s security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nonetheless, President Joe Biden met \u2014 and\u00a0shared a cordial fist-bump with\u00a0\u2014 Prince Mohammed at a diplomatic summit last week in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The scenes drew scathing criticism from fellow Democrats and rights groups after Biden had vowed to treat the kingdom like a \u201cpariah” and deemed Prince Mohammed responsible for Khashoggi\u2019s killing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From Jeddah, Biden said he raised Khashoggi\u2019s \u201coutrageous\u201d murder with Prince Mohammed and was \u201cstraightforward and direct\u201d about human rights issues, without elaborating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf anything like that occurs again,\u201d Biden said of Saudi government efforts to target dissidents abroad, \u201cthey\u2019ll get that response and much more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While some accuse Biden of abandoning his promise to put human rights at the heart of his foreign policy with his trip to the kingdom, the arrest of Alhussayen in New York underscores that federal officials are increasingly scrambling to prevent those rights abuses from occurring on U.S. soil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The kingdom’s campaign to silence criticism has played out in America for some time. In 2019, U.S. prosecutors alleged Saudi Arabia\u00a0recruited two Twitter employees to spy on thousands of accounts\u00a0including those of American citizens and Saudi dissidents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis guy is just the tip of the iceberg,\u201d said Abdullah Alaoudh, Gulf research director for Democracy for the Arab World Now, a Washington-based human rights watchdog. Alaoudh alleges he was also harassed by Alhussayen although he is not named in the complaint. \u201cIt\u2019s a much larger campaign by the Saudi government to reach people outside.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alhussayen was a graduate student at two universities in Mississippi. But online, the FBI says he was \u201c@samar16490,\u201d an account that ruthlessly insulted and threatened young women on Instagram with the apparent aim of aiding the Saudi government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Between January 2019 and August 2020, he allegedly maintained regular contact with a Saudi government employee who reported to an official at the royal court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prosecutors also said Alhussayen had taken screenshots of Khashoggi\u2019s Twitter posts dating back a year before his death and kept photos of Khashoggi on his phone this year, revealing an obsession with Saudi dissidents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alhussayen was charged with lying to federal authorities during three interviews between June 2021 and January 2022. The FBI says he told investigators he didn’t use any social media accounts other than those in his own name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alhussayen\u2019s victims routinely checked their phones to discover new waves of vitriolic attacks. As women critical of the Saudi government, they said Alhussayen\u2019s warnings were part of a powerful campaign unleashed by legions of social media trolls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMBS will wipe you off the face of the earth, you will see,\u201d Alhussayen reportedly told al-Mayouf, the Saudi activist, referring to the crown prince by his initials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He allegedly threatened al-Mayouf with the fate of well-known Saudi women imprisoned in the kingdom, filling his texts with expletives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From New York, al-Mayouf hosts a popular YouTube show that delivers biting takes on Saudi-related current events and criticizes prominent officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For her and a few other victims, there were signs that Alhussayen\u2019s intentions went beyond causing offense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After al-Mayouf rejected his help with the lawsuit and refused to meet, he lashed out. He attempted to obtain her location, the court filing said, \u201cto surveil and further harass\u201d her in person. The complaint did not elaborate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI do believe some of them are here, in the U.S.,\u201d she said of online bullies who flood her and her American fianc\u00e9 with death threats each day. \u201cI\u2019m afraid something might happen to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She and her fianc\u00e9 moved after pro-government accounts posted their home address on Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moudi Aljohani, a prominent Saudi women\u2019s rights activist who petitioned for asylum in the U.S, also believes Alhussayen was trying to gain her trust and lure her into a face-to-face meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After speaking out on social media against the country\u2019s male guardianship system, Aljohani fled the kingdom and the stifling grip of her parents in 2016. She fears her family will kill her if she returns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aljohani said she was shaken when Alhussayen reached out in 2020 from his fake Instagram account with a cryptic picture of her close family member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But she, too, earned his ire when she didn’t respond. Alhussayen allegedly told her he wanted to spit in her face. He said he hoped she met the same fate as Nada al-Qahtani, a Saudi woman who was fatally shot by her brother in a so-called \u201chonor killing\u201d in the kingdom in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In recent years, Aljohani has refrained from publicizing her critical opinions of the government because of what she described as a relentless smear campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But a lower political profile hasn\u2019t helped. She, and the others, live in fear of their government\u2019s reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Saudis are paying big money to fix their image and the way they see it, we\u2019re ruining it for them,\u201d Aljohani said. \u201cI feel like there\u2019s no place that\u2019s safe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This article was originally published on Yahoo News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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