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Ex-Twitter Employee Convicted of Spying Gets 3 1/2 Years in Prison

  • Ahmad Abouammo helped Saudi regime identify anonymous critics
  • His lawyers asked for no jail time, citing personal ‘upheaval’
Twitter headquarters in San Francisco. 

Twitter headquarters in San Francisco. 

Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Updated on

A former Twitter Inc. employee convicted of spying for Saudi Arabia was ordered to serve 3 1/2 years in prison, capping a yearslong case that showed how the social media giant was vulnerable to security breaches perpetrated from within its own ranks.

Ahmad Abouammo’s sentence handed down Wednesday by a federal judge in San Francisco falls about half way between the 7 1/4-year term prosecutors sought and what his lawyers asked for — home confinement or supervised release on probation.