Saud bin Abdullah al-Qahtani (born July 7, 1978) is a Saudi Arabian consultant and former royal court advisor. Prior to his dismissal in late 2018, he worked as an advisor to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.
He reportedly oversaw the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, among other interrogations and torture. It was after this event that he was dismissed. In December, Turkish officials issued a warrant for his arrest for the murder of Khashoggi. On November 15, 2018 he was sanctioned as a Specially Designated National under GLOMAG by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control. he is reportedly under house arrest. In April 2019, as a response to Khashoggi's murder, the United States Department of State sanctioned al-Qahtani and 15 others, banning them from entering the United States.
Described as a "nationalist ideologue", al-Qahtani served as a major influence over Mohammed bin Salman's foreign and domestic policies. Prior to his dismissal, his official post was General Supervisor of the Center for Studies and Media Affairs.
Early life and education
Al-Qahtani was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on July 7, 1978. He received a bachelor's degree in law from King Saud University, and graduated with the rank of sergeant from the Royal Saudi Air Force. Al-Qahtani subsequently obtained a master's degree in criminal justice from the Naif Arab University for Security Sciences (NAUSS).
Career
After obtaining a law degree, al-Qahtani taught law-related courses at the security colleges in Saudi Arabia. Later he worked as an adviser to the deputy chief of the royal court. He previously worked as a journalist for Elaph and as a contributor for Al Riyadh. In 2003, he served as a legal advisor to the secretariat to then crown prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz. In the early 2000s he was hired by Khaled al-Tuwaijri to protect Saudi Arabia's reputation via an "electronic army". In 2008, he became responsible for media monitoring for the royal court. Al-Qahtani worked extensively with Hacking Team for espionage purposes. He was also reportedly active on the Hack Forums, using the username Nokia2mon2.
He was officially appointed an advisor to the royal court in 2012 and was given the rank of minister in 2015.
He was also President and Chairman of the Saudi Federation of Cyber Security, Programming, and Drones (SAFCSP). Al-Qahtani also served on the board of directors of King Abdul Aziz University, the MiSK Foundation, the Royal Commission for Al-Ula, and the Saudi Union for Cyber Security and Programming.
2016 US lobbying, foreign affairs
In 2016, Al-Qahtani signed on two US lobbying firms: BGR Group "will provide public relations and media management services for The Center [for Studies and Media Affairs at The Saudi Royal Court], which includes both traditional and social media forums," for which they were to be paid US$500,000.00, while Squire Patton Boggs were to be paid $100,000 per month, plus expenses, for "legal and strategic policy advice and advocacy on foreign policy and related issues in the U.S. Government".
During the 2017–18 Qatar diplomatic crisis, al-Qahtani urged Saudi citizens to identify suspected supporters of Qatar through a "Black List" hashtag on Twitter.
He reportedly oversaw the interrogation of Saad al-Hariri during the 2017 Lebanon–Saudi Arabia dispute.
Internal Saudi affairs
In 2017, al-Qahtani was an instrumental figure in the 2017 Saudi Arabian purge, luring targets to The Ritz-Carlton, Riyadh by arranging fake meetings there. Al-Qahtani reportedly pressured detainees to sign over assets under threat of torture and imprisonment.
In 2018, al-Qahtani reportedly oversaw the torture of several female activists in Saudi Arabia including Loujain al-Hathloul. The activists, who had been campaigning against the male guardianship system and for the right to drive, were reportedly subjected to sexual assault, electrical torture, flogging, and threats of rape and murder. Al-Qahtani was personally present during at least one of the interrogation session and is reported to have personally threatened to rape, murder, and dump the body of one of the activists into the sewers.
Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi
The United States intelligence community has identified al-Qahtani as the ringleader of the assassination of Saudi dissident and Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Al-Qahtani acted as the head of what American intelligence officials called the Saudi Rapid Intervention Group, which has reportedly undertaken at least a dozen operations since 2017.