The newspaper has published the news “DefenderLujin al-Hadlul, a prominent Saudi activist, has filed a lawsuit against three former U.S. intelligence and military officials, accusing them of helping to hack his mobile phone.
The hacking led to Hadloul being arrested and extradited to Saudi Arabia from the United Arab Emirates, where he was detained, imprisoned and tortured, according to the lawsuit.
Al-Hadlol also alleged in his call that three officers were involved in the hacking of his smartphone, which was hacked by Emirati security officials. Lawyers for the three officers did not respond to requests for comment from the press.
On Thursday, a lawsuit was filed in federal court in Oregon on behalf of al-Hadlul by the American Digital Rights Organization, a non-profit electronic frontier foundation (Electronic Frontier Foundation).
All three defendants have already pleaded guilty in a separate lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice to violating U.S. export control and electronic fraud laws while serving as senior managers in the United Arab Emirates.
According to the lawsuit, Darkmater, an Emirati company that specializes in cybersecurity, and three other officials allegedly hacked into Hatloul’s phone using Apple’s news processor and other US company infrastructure.
This case seeks damages and injunctions against three persons and Darkmater.
Al-Hadloul spent almost three years in prison in Saudi Arabia before being released last February, and is currently barred from leaving the country.
Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, denies torturing the 32-year-old activist, and reports say he has received a fair trial.
Cited by Reuters’ 2019 investigation and trial, it was revealed in 2017 that al-Hadlul was targeting Americans who were monitoring dissidents on behalf of the United Arab Emirates under one plan (Project Raven). National Security and hacked his iPhone.
