Recently unsealed court documents reveal that a Saudi operative who was studying in Mississippi was allegedly using secret social media profiles to harass dissidents of the regime. Ibrahim Alhussayen was eventually arrested for lying to FBI agents about his use of pseudonymous social media accounts, the criminal complaint and affidavit say. Alhussayen, a 42-year-old Saudi citizen who has lived in the U.S. since 2013, had been obtaining his PhD at a Mississippi university when he allegedly sent threatening messages and comments to “harass dissidents and critics of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the filing says. One message in 2020 read, “Soon, I will know where you are and get you, b***h.” An Instagram comment in 2020 left on the page of a woman who had criticized some Saudi policies said, “I hope you will have the same fate/end up as Nada al-Qahtani”—a Saudi Arabian woman shot to death by her brother. The feds say Alhussayen lied to them in interviews and claimed he only operated accounts under his name.
