Former Saudi security colonel Rabih Alenezi, who defected and sought asylum in the United Kingdom after arriving in London in February 2023, has reported a campaign of digitally enabled intimidation. The U.S. Department of State’s 2023 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Saudi Arabia documented his case, including his claim that a verified X account offered money for information about his location. Alenezi also said his X account was hacked in March 2024, with critical posts replaced by images of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and that the same account claimed responsibility for disrupting one of his livestreams.
The source also describes escalating online threats, including a post offering $15 million in cryptocurrency to identify where Alenezi lived. The post’s author was subsequently suspended, but journalist Manisha Ganguly reported that rewards for his capture continued to circulate. Alenezi has said he received roughly 50 death threats per week and that a $250,000 bounty had reportedly been placed on him; these claims are attributed to him and reporting by The Guardian and BBC, rather than established by a court. The case illustrates how social platforms can be used for transnational intimidation, while the State Department cited it as evidence of Saudi efforts to threaten or abduct critics abroad.
