Published 12:23 IST, January 23rd 2020
Jeff Bezos remembers Khashoggi hours after Saudi Hacking report
Jeff Bezos took to Twitter on Wednesday to remember slain Saudi Journalist Jamal Khashoggi. He posted a picture of himself at the memorial service of Khashoggi.
Advertisement
Jeff Bezos took to Twitter on Wednesday to remember the slain Saudi Journalist Jamal Khashoggi. He posted a picture of himself at the memorial service of Khashoggi hours after a United Nations panel accused the Saudi Crown Prince of possible involvement in hacking Bezos phone.
#Jamal pic.twitter.com/8ej1rUBXVb
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) January 22, 2020
Khashoggi was killed in 2018
Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident who was living in a self-imposed exile in the US, was murdered in Istanbul in October 2018 by agents of the Saudi Government. Khashoggi was a columnist who had written critical pieces on the crown Prince and Saudi Government for Washington Post which is a publication owned by Bezos.
Elaborating on the phone hack, international media reported that an encrypted message from the personal number of the de facto ruler of the Kingdom was sent to the owner of Amazon and Washington Post, Jeff Bezos on May 1, 2018. Forensic analysts then articulated that the unsolicited file contained malware, which extracted a copious amount of data from his phone, just within hours. “Within hours of the encrypted downloader being received, a massive and unauthorized exfiltration of data from Bezos’s phone began, continuing and escalating for months thereafter,” the report states.
The divulgence is likely to mount complex questions for the Kingdom to face the world community over two instances in particular--first, how did the US tabloid National Enquirer acquire and publish intimate details of Jeff Bezos's extramarital affair in March last year, that allegedly led to the most high-profile divorce last year and secondly the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Khashoggi was assassinated five months after Bezos's phone-hack. Upon the news break, Saudi Arabia explicitly denied any role in the phone intrusion.
However, the Trump administration, a close ally of Saudi Arabia and Mohammed bin Salman personally, has not given a statement over the issue. Meanwhile, Riyadh has blatantly shunned the allegations. Calling the reports "absurd" Saudi Embassy in Washington said, "We call for an investigation on these claims so that we can have all the facts out."
12:23 IST, January 23rd 2020