Saudi Arabia Calls Jeff Bezos Phone Hacking Claims ‘Absurd’
Following recent news of Jeff Bezos' personal phone being allegedly hacked in 2018 by the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, the accused embassy has denied the allegations as "absurd."
In 2018, CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos was reportedly hacked after receiving a personal message from the personal account of the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, according to The Guardian.
The Saudi Arabian embassy has now come to deny these claims, stating that the reports are “absurd,” and demanding an investigation to clarify the issue.
The original investigation conducted by The Guardian reported that Jeff Bezos’ own phone was infiltrated in 2018 through a personal message on WhatsApp, sent allegedly by the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, with an infected file purposefully made to attack the phone.
In a tweet, the Saudi embassy said: “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 claims so that we can have all the facts out.”
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 claims so that we can have all the facts out.
— Saudi Embassy (@SaudiEmbassyUSA) January 22, 2020
Delving further into the detail and the motives behind this back and forth of accusations, it;s important to know that Bezos also owns The Washington Post, which in 2018 employed Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. This was just five months after the alleged phone hack, which according to The Guardian instantly stole large amounts of private data from Bezos’ phone, and remained active for months.
Further on, reports stated Bezos was blackmailed by the National Enquirer, owned by American Media, Inc., which attempted to force Bezos into dropping the investigation on Khashoggi by revealing intimate photos. Subsequently, Bezos hired a private investigator which deduced his phone had been hacked. this has now led to the recent conclusions made by The Guardian. Bin Salman however, has always denied any conection with the murder of Khashoggi, and the saudi embassy is now denying any involvement with the alleged phone hack as “absurd.”
