The UN has called for an investigation into claims that the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia sent spyware to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos during a WhatsApp chat.
Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, is alleged to have been the victim of the hack in 2018.
Data began leaving his phone in May, a few months before Saudi government officials murdered Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey.
UN experts Agnes Callamard and David Kaye released a joint statement on Wednesday linking The Post’s coverage with the hack.
"The information we have received suggests the possible involvement of the Crown Prince in surveillance of Mr Bezos, in an effort to influence, if not silence, The Washington Post's reporting on Saudi Arabia,” they explained.
“The allegations reinforce other reporting pointing to a pattern of targeted surveillance of perceived opponents and those of broader strategic importance to the Saudi authorities, including nationals and non-nationals.
They added: "The alleged hacking of Mr Bezos's phone, and those of others, demands immediate investigation by US and other relevant authorities, including investigation of the continuous, multi-year, direct and personal involvement of the Crown Prince in efforts to target perceived opponents.”
The duo also warned against the “unconstrained marketing, sale and use of spyware” by private companies.
“It underscores the pressing need for a moratorium on the global sale and transfer of private surveillance technology,” they said.
The hack of Bezos’s iPhone is thought to have occurred in May 2018 after the prince sent the tycoon an MP4 video file.
At the time, Khashoggi was a prominent Post columnist known for criticizing the Saudi government.
The experts said that, between Nov. 2018 and Feb. 2019, the prince allegedly revealed private information about Bezos’s life in WhatsApp messages.
The Saudi embassy in the US has already branded the claims "absurd".
