Saud al-Qahtani

The US Treasury sanctioned Saud al-Qahtani in November 2018, stating that he had participated in planning and executing the operation leading to Jamal Khashoggi's murder and had coordinated agents through Maher Mutreb. He was dismissed from the royal court. Saudi prosecutors ultimately brought no charges against him, while Turkey prosecuted him in absentia and the United Kingdom sanctioned him. In 2025, his continued presence on sanctions lists resulted in a UK company director disqualification measure.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Areej and Abdulrahman Al-Sadhan brought a federal action in the United States against X/Twitter, Saudi Arabia, al-Qahtani and others, alleging a system for identifying anonymous dissidents and subsequently repressing them. The case attributes to al-Qahtani a role in the "digital army" and interactions with agents who obtained user data. In 2024, a judge authorised alternative methods of service on him.

Attribution

Accused

Loujain al-Hathloul's family and human rights organisations accused Saud al-Qahtani of being present at or involved in ill-treatment and acts of torture inflicted on the detained activist. These accusations received considerable international attention.

Attribution

Directly implicated

Twitter suspended Saud al-Qahtani's account in September 2019 as part of action against accounts linked to the Saudi state media apparatus. Reuters described him as head of the royal court's media centre and an "electronic army" intended to defend the kingdom's image and attack perceived adversaries.

State of the evidence

Documented

Legal status — source text

Not applicable

Attribution

Institutional responsibility

During the crisis with Qatar, Saud al-Qahtani launched the hashtag #TheBlacklist and asked Saudi users to submit the names of people considered sympathetic to Doha, indicating that the names would be filtered and monitored. The campaign was denounced as an instrument of intimidation and surveillance of dissent.

State of the evidence

Reported by the press

Legal status — source text

Not applicable

Attribution

Personally implicated

Reuters reported, on the basis of several Saudi and Arab sources, that Qahtani had been the "bad cop" during Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri's detention in Riyadh: a security team allegedly beat him, Qahtani allegedly insulted him and supervised his interrogation before forcing him to read a resignation statement. The episode sparked an international diplomatic crisis.

State of the evidence

Allegations

Attribution

Directly implicated

Sources cited by Reuters described Qahtani as a central actor in the Ritz-Carlton purge, claiming that he had overseen some interrogations of detained princes, ministers and businessmen. Human rights organisations condemned the lack of due process and allegations of coercion or ill-treatment during the campaign.

Attribution

Directly implicated

A Bellingcat investigation based on leaked Hacking Team data attributed several email addresses and a telephone number to al-Qahtani, used to contact the Italian company in 2012 and again in 2015 to explore purchasing surveillance tools. The investigation also connected these identifiers to a highly active Hack Forums account and infrastructure associated with hacking tools.

Attribution

Directly implicated