U.N. Officials Say Hacking of Bezos' Phone Suggests Effort to Influence News Coverage
January 22 2020 - 10:32AM
Dow Jones News
By Dustin Volz
U.N. officials called for further investigation into the alleged
hacking of Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos' phone in 2018 by a
WhatsApp account associated with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman, which the experts said suggested an attempt to influence
news coverage of the kingdom by The Washington Post, which Mr.
Bezos owns.
The U.N. statement on Wednesday was based on a forensic analysis
of Mr. Bezos' phone reviewed by the two experts. It comes a day
after a person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street
Journal that cybersecurity experts hired by Mr. Bezos have alleged
that his phone was probably hacked in 2018 by a WhatsApp account
associated with Prince Mohammed.
Agnes Callamard, the U.N.'s special rapporteur on extrajudicial
killings, and David Kaye, the special rapporteur on freedom of
expression, said the hacking took place in May 2018 and continued
for months, around the time of the murder of Washington Post
columnist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018.
"The circumstances and timing of the hacking and surveillance of
Bezos also strengthen support for further investigation by U.S. and
other relevant authorities of the allegations that the Crown Prince
ordered, incited, or, at a minimum, was aware of planning for but
failed to stop the mission that fatally targeted Mr. Khashoggi in
Istanbul.
"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 the U.N. experts in a news
release.
The Saudi embassy in Washington has called reports of the
alleged hacking "absurd" and called for an investigation.
Write to Dustin Volz at dustin.volz@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 22, 2020 10:17 ET (15:17 GMT)
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