The website of a Saudi Arabian investment conference hosted by the crown prince has just returned to normal after being defaced following the murder of a Washington Post journalist.
The Arab nation has now admitted Saudi national Jamal Khashoggi was murdered on a visit to his country’s consulate in Istanbul at the beginning of the month, having changed its story several times.
However, the country’s foreign minister has claimed that it was a rogue operation not ordered by the powerful prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
That’s a version of events disputed by Turkey, which says it has proof that the office of the crown prince received four phone calls from the consulate after the killing. Surveillance footage received by CNN also appears to show an imposter dressed as the journalist with fake beard and glasses leaving the consulate's back door on the day he was killed.
In response to the outrage, hackers managed to deface the website of the Future Investment Initiative, a pet project of the prince’s known as “Davos in the Desert.”
According to screen grabs taken by CBC News Network journalist, Nahayat Tizhoosh, it featured an image of the prince scything down Khashoggi with a large sword.
Also published were a list of names, phone numbers and Saudi government email addresses with the accompanying message: “thousands of terrorists and spies in the Saudi regime who perform malicious activities around the globe.”
Another statement on the defaced page read:
“For the sake of security for children worldwide, we urge all countries to put sanction on the Saudi regime. The regime, aligned with the United States, must be kept responsible for its barbaric and inhuman action, such as killing its own citizen Jamal khashoggi and thousands of innocent people in Yemen. The medieval Saudi regime is one of the sources for #Terrorism_Financing in the world.”
During the writing of this story, the website returned from a blank error page to displaying a live stream of the event.