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Influencer named in report on Saudi dissidents loses negligence suit

The appeals court shielded McKinsey and Company from liability to a man who tweets critically about the Saudi government.

MANHATTAN (CN) — The consulting agency McKinsey and Company had no duty to protect the identity of a man and his family when it produced a report naming him among top critics of the Saudi government, the Second Circuit ruled Tuesday.

McKinsey prepared the report in late 2016, ostensibly as a study on how the public was responding to the government's announcement of budget cuts to deal with falling oil prices. The report featured three Twitter users with large followings who had been critical of the actions by the government.

One of those listed was Omar Abdulaziz, a close ally of journalist Jamal Khashoggi whose death the Saudi government would order two years later. Abdulaziz had already received asylum in Canada by the time the 2016 report on him came out, but he claims that the Saudi government has persecuted those close to him in his absence, including removing his brother's teeth.

Abdulaziz sued McKinsey, claiming it negligently put him and his family in danger. A federal judge ruled last September that the agency had no duty of care to Abdulaziz, and the Second Circuit affirmed Tuesday in an 8-page summary order.

The court noted that there is nothing under New York law that Abdulaziz presented to show that McKinsey breached a duty of care to him.

“Other than the foreseeability of risk, Abdulaziz provides no reason why sharing the report was itself a breach of a cognizable duty of care running from McKinsey to Abdulaziz, and he fails to distinguish such a putative duty from similar ones rejected by New York courts,” the ruling states.

At oral arguments last month, an attorney for Abdulaziz urged the court to consider the danger that came along with those named in McKinsey's report.

None of the three judges on the panel who heard the case signed Tuesday's decision, which says that state law requires Abdulaziz to show more for liability to attach.

“He emphasizes that McKinsey knew or should have known that identifying him in its report would likely result in serious repercussions for him and his friends and family at the hands of the Saudi government,” they wrote. “However, in considering whether a defendant owes a duty of care, ‘foreseeability of injury does not determine the existence of duty’.”

There is also no point in letting Abdualaziz amend his complaint, the judges wrote, finding that no change would make his claims successful.

An anonymous Twitter user named Ahmad and Khalid Al Alkami were the other two listed on McKinsey’s report as critics of the Saudi government. Since the report, Ahmad has disappeared and Alkami has been arrested.

Abdulaziz is profiled in the award-winning Khashoggi documentary “The Dissident.” He was represented by John Olsen, and McKinsey was represented by Joseph Palmore with the firm Morrison and Foerster. Neither lawyer has responded to emails seeking comment.

U.S. Circuit Judges Debra Ann Livingston, a George W. Bush appointee, Jose Cabranes, a Clinton appointee, and Michael Park, a Trump appointee, wrote the unanimous decision. 

McKinsey's 9-page report outlined that most criticism of the Saudi government related to the quality of the streets and often used the hashtag “HighwayFeesInsurance.” As for Abdulaziz, he often spoke out about the royal decrees.

Categories / Appeals, Civil Rights, International, Media

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