Saudi case against Twitter user may have its roots in US

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A Saudi humanitarian aid worker's anonymous Twitter account used for satire about Saudi Arabia's economy landed him in prison in the kingdom over three years ago.

But the story may have roots in an elaborate ploy that began in Silicon Valley and sparked a federal case against two Twitter employees accused of spying for the kingdom.

The case, spanning from San Francisco to Riyadh, reveals Saudi Arabia's continued efforts at suppressing criticism of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and shines a spotlight on the lengths to which the kingdom has gone to target perceived critics.

For Areej al-Sadhan, a dual Saudi-U.S. citizen living in California, the saga began on March 12, 2018, when plain-clothed security forces entered the office of the Red Crescent in Riyadh, where her younger brother, Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, was working.

The men took her brother away, without any explanation.

“It was like he disappeared off the face of the earth ... there was no trace of him at all,” she said.

That same year, the crown prince oversaw an unprecedented crackdown against activists, rivals and perceived critics as he amassed power. The year culminated in the gruesome killing of Washington Post contributing columnist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in the Saudi Consulate in Turkey in late 2018.

As months went by, word reached al-Sadhan's family that he was being held in a secret location and subjected to abuse: beatings, electrocution, sleep deprivation, verbal and even sexual assault.

Then, in February 2020, nearly two years after his disappearance, a relative's phone rang. It was al-Sadhan. He confirmed he was alive and being held in al-Ha'ir Prison on the outskirts of the Saudi capital. A year later, he called again to tell them he would...