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Twitter Bans Saudi Arabia’s Ex-Royal Adviser's Account, Takes Down Network of UAE and Egypt Pages

A year ago, the adviser was removed from his post over his suspected involvement in the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Sputnik

Twitter has permanently suspended the account of former Saudi royal court adviser Saud al-Qahtani, the social network confirmed in its blog.

Twitter Bans Saudi Arabia’s Ex-Royal Adviser's Account, Takes Down Network of UAE and Egypt Pages

According to the blog, the social network has also deleted 267 accounts originating in the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.

Twitter explained that the accounts were taken down because they "amplified messaging supportive of the Saudi government".

The 41-year-old al-Qahtani was officially appointed an adviser to the royal court in 2012.

Following the assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the United States identified the former adviser as the mastermind of the murder.

He was sanctioned and banned from entering the United States along with 15 other individuals suspected of being involved in the incident.

In October 2018, al-Qahtani was dismissed as the royal court's supervisor of media affairs after which he stopped using Twitter.

Khashoggi, who was a well-known critic of Saudi policies, went missing last October after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Riyadh initially denied any knowledge of the journalist's whereabouts, but eventually five of the Saudi officials accused of involvement in his murder admitted that Khashoggi had been drugged and killed and his body had been dismembered, according to Riyadh's public prosecutor.

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