SAN FRANCISCO/CAIRO –Saudi Arabia’s embassy strongly responds over seriousallegations against Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman.
Saudi Arabia had hacked Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos’ phone and boththe kingdom and the United States should investigate, UN officials revealed.
The United Nations’ officials plan a public statement asserting that theyfound credible a forensic report commissioned by Bezos’ security team whichconcluded that his phone probably had been hacked with a tainted video sentfrom a WhatsApp account belonging to Saudi’s crown prince Mohammed binSalman, Reuters has reported.
The report by FTI Consulting concluded that massive amounts of data beganleaving Bezos’ phone about a month after the video was shared in mid-2018,the person said, declining to be identified due to the sensitivity of thesubject.
Outside experts consulted by the UN agreed that while the case was notairtight, the evidence was strong enough to warrant a fuller investigation.
The report is set to worsen relations between the world’s richest man andthe kingdom which had soured following the murder of Saudi journalist JamalKhashoggi in 2018, who was also a columnist for the Bezos’ owned WashingtonPost.
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The Guardian first reported the crown prince’s alleged involvement. It saidthe encrypted message from the number used by the crown prince is believedto have included a malicious file that infiltrated the phone Bezos had usedand extracted large amounts of data.
Saudi Arabia’s U.S. embassy dismissed the report.
“Recent media reports that suggest the Kingdom is behind a hacking of Mr.Jeff Bezos’ phone are absurd. We call for an investigation on these claimsso that we can have all the facts out,” it said in a message posted onTwitter.
