Saudi Arabia hacked the phone of the head of Amazon, "says an investigator

Copyright of the image
Reuters

An investigator of Amazon's boss, Jeff Bezos, said that Saudi Arabia had hacked Mr. Bezos' phone and accessed his data.

Bezos hired Gavin de Becker to find out how his private messages had been leaked in the National Enquirer tabloid.

Mr. Becker linked the piracy to the Washington Post 's cover of the killing of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul.

Saudi Arabia has not yet commented on the allegation.

Mr. Bezos owns the Washington Post.

Mr. de Becker said that he had submitted his findings to US federal officials.

"Our investigators and several experts concluded with great confidence that the Saudis had access to Bezos' phone and obtained confidential information," he wrote on the Daily Beast website.

Mr de Becker's findings come after Mr Bezos accused in February the blackmail of the parent company of National Enquirer, American Media Inc. (AMI), claiming that it had threatened to publish his intimate photos, unless He only states that the tabloid information was not motivated by political considerations.

Mr. de Becker said that AMI had also asked him to indicate that, according to his investigation, AMI had relied on "no form of wiretapping or electronic hacking in the part of their information-gathering process ".

He alleged that the Saudi government targeted the Washington Post – for which Mr. Khashoggi had written.

"Some Americans will be surprised to learn that the Saudi government is very determined to hurt Jeff Bezos since last October, when the post office began relentlessly covering the killing of Khashoggi," he said. said M. de Becker.

"It is clear that the MBS considers the Washington Post as a major enemy," he added, referring to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

US authorities have said that the assassination of Mr. Khashoggi would need the approval of Prince Mohammed, but Saudi Arabia denied his participation.

The Saudi Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment on Mr. Becker's allegation, Reuters reported.

In February, the Saudi Foreign Minister told Saudi Arabia that "the report of the national Enquirer company on the Bezos case had absolutely nothing to do with it".

AMI has not yet commented on Mr. Becker's allegations. The company had previously stated that it had acted legally in its reporting on Mr. Bezos' personal life.