Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister denied allegations that the Saudi crown prince hacked Jeff Bezos’s cellphone.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al Saud denied the allegations in an interview with Reuters from the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday.
“I think absurd is exactly the right word,” al Saud said in an interview at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting. “The idea that the crown prince would hack Jeff Bezos’ phone is absolutely silly.”
Sources told the Guardian Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hacked Bezos’s phone through a corrupted video file on Tuesday. The United Nations followed suit on Wednesday and called for an investigation into the prince’s alleged involvement in the hack.
U.N. investigators concluded “with reasonable certainty” that the hack came from an account associated with the crown prince and said in a statement that the evidence justifies an investigation “of the continuous, multi-year, direct and personal involvement of the Crown Prince in efforts to target perceived opponents.”
Bezos’s team of investigators concluded with “high confidence” that hackers obtained access to the billionaire’s phone and stole large amounts of data over the course of several hours.
