U.N. Officials Say Hacking of Bezos' Phone Suggests Effort to Influence News Coverage

By Dustin Volz 

U.N. officials called for further investigation into the alleged hacking of Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos' phone in 2018 by a WhatsApp account associated with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, which the experts said suggested an attempt to influence news coverage of the kingdom by The Washington Post, which Mr. Bezos owns.

The U.N. statement on Wednesday was based on a forensic analysis of Mr. Bezos' phone reviewed by the two experts. It comes a day after a person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal that cybersecurity experts hired by Mr. Bezos have alleged that his phone was probably hacked in 2018 by a WhatsApp account associated with Prince Mohammed.

Agnes Callamard, the U.N.'s special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, and David Kaye, the special rapporteur on freedom of expression, said the hacking took place in May 2018 and continued for months, around the time of the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in October 2018.

"The circumstances and timing of the hacking and surveillance of Bezos also strengthen support for further investigation by U.S. and other relevant authorities of the allegations that the Crown Prince ordered, incited, or, at a minimum, was aware of planning for but failed to stop the mission that fatally targeted Mr. Khashoggi in Istanbul.

"At a time when Saudi Arabia was supposedly investigating the killing of Mr. Khashoggi, and prosecuting those it deemed responsible, it was clandestinely waging a massive online campaign against Mr. Bezos and Amazon targeting him principally as the owner of The Washington Post," said the U.N. experts in a news release.

The Saudi embassy in Washington has called reports of the alleged hacking "absurd" and called for an investigation.

Write to Dustin Volz at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 22, 2020 10:17 ET (15:17 GMT)

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