RIYADH (Middle East Eye) – A Twitter account believed to be run by a Saudi official and close associate of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been harassing journalists and critics of the recent Saudi Newcastle United takeover on social media.
The Twitter account at the center of some of the online attacks - “@KateStewart22” - is believed to be run by Saud al-Qahtani, a Saudi regime official who has been accused by the CIA of being involved in the brutal 2018 murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Al Jazeera journalist Ghada Oueiss named Al-Qahtani as the person behind @KateStewart22 in a lawsuit filed last year against several defendants over a series of serious online attacks, harassment and hacking incidents.
The account, which has 25,000 followers, tweets in both English and Arabic and has been “trolling” those critical of the kingdom’s £370bn Public Investment Fund purchase of the Newcastle United football club.
The account retweeted and posted dozens of times in response to the accusations made this weekend, denying any official association with the Saudi government.
The KateStewart22 account got into a public spat with The Mail on Sunday’s chief sports writer Oliver Holt last week, after he tweeted criticism of what he called a “murdering, misogynistic, homophobic, despotic” regime in Saudi Arabia.
“KSA [Kingdom of Saudi Arabia] is a monarchy and well-loved by the people there. Who are you to label it authoritarian?” the KateStewart22 account tweeted in response, accusing Holt of “sly racism” and having a “blatant agenda”.
Al-Qahtani ran social-media operations and served as chief propagandist for bin Salman.
U.S. intelligence officials also accused al-Qahtani of being the ringleader in the operation to murder Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
Recordings obtained via bugs that had been placed in the consulate by Arab and Turkish intelligence services allegedly proved that al-Qahtani called officials in the consulate during Khashoggi’s visit, telling a hit squad to “bring me the head of the dog”.
Meanwhile, a CIA investigation found that MBS had exchanged at least 11 messages with al-Qahtani just before and after the Khashoggi murder. This led the U.S. government to conclude that the crown prince had ordered the killing.