Saud bin Abdullah al-Qahtani (born July 7, 1978) is a Saudi Arabian consultant and former royal court advisor. Prior to his dismissal in late 2018, he worked as an advisor to
King
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and crown prince
Mohammed bin Salman
Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud ( ar, محمد بن سلمان آل سعود, translit=Muḥammad bin Salmān Āl Su‘ūd; born 31 August 1985), colloquially known by his initials MBS or MbS, is Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia. H ...
.
He reportedly oversaw the
killing of Jamal Khashoggi
On 2 October 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident journalist was assassinated by agents of the Saudi government at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. Khashoggi was ambushed and strangled by a 15-member squad of Saudi assassins. His body ...
,
among other interrogations and torture. It was after this event that he was dismissed. In December, Turkish officials issued a warrant for his arrest for the murder of Khashoggi. he is reportedly under
house arrest.
In April 2019, as a response to Khashoggi's murder, the United States Government banned al-Qahtani and 15 others from entering the United States.
Described as a "
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...
ideologue", al-Qahtani served as a major influence over Mohammed bin Salman's foreign and domestic policies. Prior to his dismissal, his official post was General Supervisor of the Center for Studies and Media Affairs.
Early life
Al-Qahtani was born in
Riyadh
Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of th ...
,
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
on July 7, 1978.
He received a bachelor's degree in law from
King Saud University
King Saud University (KSU, ar, جامعة الملك سعود) is a public university in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Established in 1957 by King Saud bin Abdulaziz to address the country's skilled worker shortage, it is the first university in the K ...
, and graduated with the rank of sergeant from the
Royal Saudi Air Force
The Royal Saudi Air Force ( ar, الْقُوَّاتُ الْجَوِّيَّةُ الْمَلَكِيَّةْ ٱلسُّعُوْدِيَّة, Al-Quwwat Al-Jawiyah Al-Malakiyah as-Su’udiyah) (RSAF) is the aviation branch of the Saudi Arabia ...
.
Al-Qahtani subsequently obtained a master's degree in
criminal justice
Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the rehabilitation of offenders, preventing other ...
from the Naif Arab University for Security Sciences (NAUSS).
Career
Al-Qahtani previously worked as a journalist for ''
Elaph
Elaph ( ar, إيلاف; ''Solidarity'') is the first daily Arabic independent online newspaper and is not associated with any established print or broadcast medium.
History and profile
''Elaph'' was launched by Elaph Publishing in London in 2001 ...
'' and as a contributor for ''
Al Riyadh
Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the R ...
''.
After obtaining a law degree, al-Qahtani worked as an adviser to the deputy chief of the royal court.
In 2003, he served as a legal advisor to the secretariat to then crown prince
Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz
Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ( ar, عبدالله بن عبدالعزيز آل سعود ''ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al ʿAzīz Āl Saʿūd'', Najdi Arabic pronunciation: ; 1 August 1924 – 23 January 2015) was King of Saudi Arabia, King and Pri ...
.
In the early 2000s he was hired by
Khaled al-Tuwaijri
Khalid al-Tuwaijri is a former chief of the Royal Court of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia who was the highest ranking non- prince in the kingdom until his ousting by King Salman in 2015.
At chief of the royal court, al-Tuwaijri became the most ...
to protect Saudi Arabia's reputation via an "electronic army".
In 2008, he became responsible for media monitoring for the royal court.
Al-Qahtani worked extensively with
Hacking Team
HackingTeam was a Milan-based information technology company that sold offensive intrusion and surveillance capabilities to governments, law enforcement agencies and corporations. Its "''Remote Control Systems''" enable governments and corporatio ...
for espionage purposes.
He was also reportedly active on the
Hack Forums, using the username Nokia2mon2.
He was officially appointed an advisor to the royal court in 2012 and was given the rank of minister in 2015.
He was also President and Chairman of the Saudi Federation of Cyber Security, Programming, and Drones (SAFCSP).
Al-Qahtani also served on the board of directors of
King Abdul Aziz University
King Abdulaziz University (KAU) ( ar, جامعة الملك عبد العزيز) is a public university in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. With over 117,096 students in 2022, it is the largest university in the country. Located in south Jeddah, the uni ...
, the
MiSK Foundation, the
Royal Commission for Al-Ula, and the Saudi Union for Cyber Security and Programming.
2016 US lobbying, foreign affairs
In 2016, Al-Qahtani signed on two US lobbying firms:
BGR Group "will provide public relations and media management services for The Center
or Studies and Media Affairs at The Saudi Royal Court which includes both traditional and social media forums," for which they were to be paid US$500,000.00, while
Squire Patton Boggs
Squire Patton Boggs is an international law firm with 42 offices in 20 countries. It was formed in 2014 by the merger of multinational law firm Squire Sanders with Washington, D.C. based Patton Boggs. It is one of the 30 largest law firms in the ...
were to be paid $100,000 per month, plus expenses, for "legal and strategic policy advice and advocacy on foreign policy and related issues in the U.S. Government".
During the
2017–18 Qatar diplomatic crisis, al-Qahtani urged Saudi citizens to identify suspected supporters of
Qatar
Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...
through a "Black List"
hashtag on
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
.
He reportedly oversaw the interrogation of
Saad al-Hariri during the
2017 Lebanon–Saudi Arabia dispute
The 2017 Lebanon–Saudi Arabia dispute began when Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri abruptly announced his resignation while he was in Saudi Arabia on 4 November 2017. Shortly thereafter, the foreign relations between both countries and allie ...
.
Internal Saudi affairs
In 2017, al-Qahtani was an instrumental figure in the
2017 Saudi Arabian purge, luring targets to
The Ritz-Carlton, Riyadh by arranging fake meetings there.
Al-Qahtani reportedly pressured detainees to sign over assets under threat of torture and imprisonment.
In 2018, al-Qahtani reportedly oversaw the torture of several female activists in Saudi Arabia including
Loujain al-Hathloul
Loujain al-Hathloul ( ar, لجين الهذلول ''Lujjayn al-Hadhlūl''; born 31 July 1989) is a Saudi women's rights activist, a social media figure, and political prisoner. She is a graduate of the University of British Columbia. Al-Hathloul ...
.
The activists, who had been campaigning
against the male guardianship system and for
the right to drive, were reportedly subjected to
sexual assault, electrical torture, flogging, and threats of
rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...
and
murder.
Al-Qahtani was personally present during at least one of the interrogation session and is reported to have personally threatened to rape, murder, and dump the body of one of the activists into the sewers.
Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi
The
United States intelligence community
United may refer to:
Places
* United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community
* United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community
Arts and entertainment Films
* ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film
* ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two f ...
has identified al-Qahtani as the ringleader of the assassination of Saudi dissident and ''
Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...
'' journalist
Jamal Khashoggi
Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi (; ar, جمال أحمد خاشقجي, Jamāl ʾAḥmad Ḵāšuqjī, ; 13 October 1958 – 2 October 2018) was a Saudi journalist, dissident, author, columnist for ''Middle East Eye'' and ''The Washington Post'', and a ge ...
.
Al-Qahtani acted as the head of what American intelligence officials called the Saudi Rapid Intervention Group, which has reportedly undertaken at least a dozen operations since 2017.
Al-Qahtani had been in contact with Khashoggi since at least October 2017, alerting Khashoggi that his public writings were being monitored.
Al-Qahtani was reportedly involved with luring Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia, suggesting to Khashoggi that he might be able to work with Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman
Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud ( ar, محمد بن سلمان آل سعود, translit=Muḥammad bin Salmān Āl Su‘ūd; born 31 August 1985), colloquially known by his initials MBS or MbS, is Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia. H ...
.
After the assassination of Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, al-Qahtani was dismissed as the royal court's supervisor of media affairs.
According to Arab and Turkish sources, al-Qahtani organized the Khashoggi operation, even calling into the consulate via Skype to talk with and insult Khashoggi before telling the assembled team: "Bring me the head of the dog."
The Saudi state prosecutor announced on 15 November 2018 that 11 agents were indicted and 5 charged with murdering Khashoggi. He added that al-Qahtani met the leader of the team that killed Khashoggi before it was dispatched to Turkey. Al-Qahtani was not arrested.
Saudi officials have never revealed the whereabouts of Khashoggi's remains.
Prince Mohammed bin Salman exchanged at least 11 messages with al-Qahtani in the hours before and after the assassination of Khashoggi, leading the
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
to conclude that Mohammed ordered Khashoggi's murder.
A member of the Saudi hit team, Maher Mutreb, also called al-Qahtani to inform him that the operation has been completed.
However, the message-exchange element of the report was contested by Saudi Arabia based on a confidential Saudi-commissioned investigation.
In November 2018, Saudi authorities confirmed that he was being investigated and was barred to leave the country. On December 5, 2018, the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office requested, and was issued, an
arrest warrant for Saud al-Qahtani for the murder of Khashoggi. Saudi
Minister of Foreign Affairs
A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between co ...
Adel al-Jubeir
Adel Al-Jubeir ( ar, عادل بن أحمد الجبير; born 1 February 1962) is a Saudi diplomat who is the former Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs and the current Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. He is the second person not belon ...
rejected Turkey's request for al-Qahtani's extradition on December 9, stating that Saudi Arabia does not extradite its citizens.
In January 2019, the Saudi authorities were, according to ''The Washington Post'', refusing to confirm the whereabouts of al-Qahtani. There were concerns that he could be influencing the investigation itself.
Khalil Jahshan, executive director of the Arab Center based in Washington DC, stated in an interview with Al Jazeera, that al-Qahtani's "disappearance" was a "natural progression of
audi Arabia'sinvestigation" and is likely used as a strategy to keep crown prince Mohammed bin Salman protected from accusations regarding Khashoggi's murder: "They have sheltered some of the key players accused of being involved
n the murderwhether by Turkey or by the international community. The intention of the Saudi campaign right now is to keep the crown prince clear of any accusations with regards to the murder of Khashoggi."
In December 2019, Saudi state TV reported that al-Qahtani was being investigated for his role in the murder of Khashoggi but was cleared of any charges as there was no proof of involvement. Five others were sentenced to death and another three given a combined 24-year prison sentence.
Agnès Callamard called the Saudi trials "the antithesis of justice", and "a mockery".
[Jamal Khashoggi: Saudis sentence five to death for journalist's murder]
Frank Gardener, 23 December 2019, BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
Al-Qahtani was known to procure offensive hacking tools on behalf of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, among them tools made by the Italian company
.
'' reported that a strain had developed between King Salman and his son, Crown Prince
. March 7, 2019, al-Qahtani reportedly signed an order instructing "a technical team to carry out the "penetration" of the Guardian's computer servers "in complete secrecy"".
According to an analysis by
(CEO of Amazon and owner of The Washington Post) - five months before the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. FTI Consulting was asked to look at Bezos' devices after the US tabloid
. Bezos accused Pecker of trying to blackmail him with the threat of publishing "intimate photos" he allegedly sent to Sanchez. Bezos' team suggested it was an orchestrated take down by American Media Inc and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The Guardian reported that a WhatsApp message sent from the personal account of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman was the source of the hack. A UN report came to the same conclusion, experts lent their weight to allegations that Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman hacked the mobile phone of Bezos to “influence, if not silence” The Washington Post's reporting. Agnes Callamard, UN special rapporteur on summary executions and extrajudicial killings, and
, UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression, issued the joint statement, which emphasized that "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," ... "the alleged hacking of Mr. Bezos's phone, and those of others, demands immediate investigation by US and other relevant authorities, including investigation of the continuous, multi-year, direct and personal involvement of the crown prince in efforts to target perceived opponents." UN investigators concluded that Saudi use of the
spyware, which enables remote surveillance of cellphones, from controversial Israeli technology firm
was the “most likely explanation” the hacking attack against Bezos. Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, has since sued NSO Group in America.
tweeted that al-Qahtani had been poisoned. In September 2019,
noted the poisoning rumors, but stated that two people close to al-Qahtani maintained that he was still alive. On 8 October 2021, the British daily
reported signs of Al-Qahtani’s return to the court of Mohammed bin Salman. This news is backing reports since May, June and August 2021 that several messages of support have appeared on pro-government social media accounts, praising the man as "hero", "patriot" and "leader".