ALEXANDRIA, Va. (CN) — In 2018, Hanan Elatr Khashoggi endured an unthinkable tragedy: the violent death of her husband, Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who never returned from a visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. But that wasn't the end of it.
On top of everything else, Hanan Khashoggi later learned that in the months leading to her husband’s murder, spyware infiltrated her cellphones.
On Thursday, the widow of the late Saudi critic brought a lawsuit that accuses two tech firms — NSO Group Technologies and Q Cyber Technologies — of violating computer law in a scheme that facilitated her husband's brutal murder.
Represented by Michael Pendell of Motley Rice, Hanan Khashoggi recalls an incident that researchers have pinpointed as the moment when NSO's Pegasus spyware was installed onto at least one of her devices.
In April 2018, while working as a flight attendant, she “arrived at the Dubai International Airport and found seven Emirati intelligence officers waiting for her," the complaint alleges.
“Hanan was blindfolded, handcuffed, and transported to a remote interrogation cell where she was questioned about Jamal and his activities for over 17 hours," it continues. "Hanan was detained and her captors took both of her cellphones that she had been using to communicate with Jamal.”
Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, 2018. He was 59.
"Her husband’s life was cut short by Saudi agents who perpetuated the killing, using, upon information and belief, knowledge about Jamal obtained by NSO Group from Hanan’s own devices, which were transformed into handheld spies," the widow claims.
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, the lawsuit asks the court to order the two firms to pay unspecified damages.
"Defendants contributed to Jamal’s death by knowingly providing Pegasus [the spyware] and other products to clients with known human rights violations, by aiding them and providing support to those clients, and by intentionally, recklessly, and or negligently aiding and abetting in the commission of the crimes of torture and murder," the plaintiff said in the complaint.
NSO Group Technologies Limited developed, sold and assisted in the deployment and use of cutting-edge spyware technology. It is a subsidiary of Q Cyber Technologies and has been primarily funded and controlled by California-based investment funds. Its powerful spyware is undetectable.
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
