On Wednesday, a former Twitter employee, who was convicted of spying on users on behalf of the Saudi Arabia royal family, received a three-and-a-half-year sentence, according to CNBC.
In August, Ahmad Abouammo was found guilty of taking bribes from an aide to Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
In return, Abouammo provided information on the sensitive account that could help track and silence dissidents, as per Engadget.
Ahmad Abouammo Gets 42 Months of Prison Term
Abouammo is a dual US-Lebanese citizen who rendered help in overseeing media partnerships for Twitter in the Middle East and North Africa.
According to CNBC, he was part of a plan to gather the personal information of users, including phone numbers and birth dates, for the benefit of a Saudi Arabiagovernment agent.
He received his sentence in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.
US District Judge Edward Chen sentenced him to 42 months or three-and-a-half-year in federal prison. Likewise, he was ordered to pay $242,000 for the cost of bribes that he received for his work.
According to CNN, Abouammo will start serving his prison sentence in March of next year.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice believes that there was another former Twitter employee, accused of accessing user accounts, who has fled to Saudi Arabia to evade investigations by the American authorities.
Similarly, another man, accused of helping the Saudi government with the scheme, has also fled to the said country in the Middle East to avoid prosecution in the US.
The government of Saudi Arabia severely penalizes expression against the government on social media sites like Twitter.
For instance, the courts sentenced Salma al-Shehab in April, a citizen of Saudi Arabia and a 34-year-old mother of two children. She gets 34 years in prison for posting tweets protesting against the government.
Read Also: Saudi Arabian Woman is Sentenced to 34 Years in Prison for Tweeting in Favor of Women's Rights
Ahmad Abouammo's Actions are Serious and Consequential, Says US District Judge
According to Chen, it's a serious offense to expose dissident information. He called Abouammo's actions "serious" and "consequential."
Meanwhile, US Attorney Stephanie Hinds said that the sentence should send a message to insiders who have access to user information to safeguard it from repressive regimes or risk spending time in prison.
Abouammo was found guilty of spying for Saudi Arabia in August after a two-and-a-half-week trial in San Francisco federal court.
According to the prosecutors, Bader Al-Asaker, a close adviser to Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince, recruited Abouammo. Al-Asaker convinced him to use his insider knowledge to access Twitter accounts and gather personal information about dissidents in Saudi Arabia.
Allegedly, the accounts included @mujtahidd, a pseudonym for a political agitator who has millions of Twitter followers. His followers increased during the Arab Spring uprisings when he accused Saudi Arabia's royal family of corruption and other misdeeds.
According to the prosecutors, Abouammo obtained at least $300,000 and a $20,000 luxury watch from Al-Asaker.
To conceal the money, he deposited it in a relative's account in Lebanon. Afterward, he had it wired to his own account in the US.
In addition, he was also proven guilty of wire fraud and honest services fraud, as well as money laundering, and a conspiracy charge.
Related Article: A Former Twitter Employee Has Been Found Guilty of Spying for Saudi Arabia
