Accused Saudi Spy Says Khashoggi Killing Irrelevant to His Trial
- Ex-Twitter worker faces charges he was mole for royal family
- He said it would be unfair to link to him to “KSA’s crimes”
Demonstrators hold images of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi an event marking the anniversary of his assassination in front of the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul.
Photographer: Ozan Kose/AFP/Getty Images
A former Twitter Inc. employee accused of helping Saudi Arabia crack down on dissidents says there should be no mention at his US trial of the government’s involvement in the slaying of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Ahmad Abouammo, who is charged with acting as an illegal foreign agent in the US, is asking a federal judge to declare certain evidence off limits when he goes to trial in July in San Francisco. Prosecutors claim that while working as a Middle East media liaison for Twitter in 2014, Abouammo was recruited and paid by the Saudi royal family to look up confidential account details on users of the platform who had posted criticism of the regime.