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The English High Court has ordered Saudi Arabia to pay a London-based dissident more than £3m after concluding that the kingdom infected his phone with spyware and directed a physical attack against him.
A judge ruled that Ghanem al-Masarir, a former Saudi citizen and human rights activist, was entitled to compensation for the psychiatric harm he had suffered after discovering his phone was hacked in 2018.
The court accepted that Saudi authorities infected the phone with Pegasus, a notorious spyware acquired from Israeli tech company NSO Group.
The court also concluded that a physical attack suffered by Masarir outside the Harrods department store in west London in August 2018 was directed by Riyadh, for which he was also entitled to compensation.
The total damages awarded by the court, to be paid for by the Saudi state, are £3,025,663.
Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters“The Claimant was subject to various acts of intimidation between 2015 and 2019,” said Judge Pushpinder Saini. “I infer that the [Kingdom of Saudi Arabia] and/or its agents were responsible for these various acts of intimidation.”
Saudi Arabia “had a clear interest in and motivation to shut down" Masarir's public criticism of its government, Saini added.
Pegasus software can extract data stored on an infected device, track its location, intercept and record voice calls, and intercept and record sounds and images in the vicinity.
Saini said that the activist was exercising his free speech rights, and that there had been no justification for hacking or surveillance.
“Today's ruling brings a long and painful chapter to a close. It affirms that standing up for the truth, no matter how powerful the opponent, is worth the struggle,” said Masarir.
Yahya Assiri, a UK-based human rights defender and Saudi dissident, also had his phone hacked between 2018 and 2020.
“This ruling is a true victory, not only for Ghanem, who endured years of patience and suffering, but for all of us and for the cause of human rights,” Assiri, founder of human rights group Alqst, told Middle East Eye on Monday.
Like Masarir, Assiri has pursued legal action against the kingdom.
“In my own case, I proposed negotiations, offering to withdraw the lawsuit in exchange for the release of prisoners of conscience, but the Saudi authorities chose to proceed before the court,” he said.
“In Ghanem’s case, they chose silence, and the judiciary delivered justice.”
'Money can't undo what I suffered'Masarir has lived in the UK since 2003, and is a prominent campaigner for human rights and political reform in Saudi Arabia. He was granted asylum in 2018.
He uses his YouTube channel, where he has amassed more than 300 million views, to share his political views.
“No amount of money can undo what I have suffered, but I hope the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will now do the right thing and comply with this judgment without the need for further enforcement action,” Masarir said.
'In Ghanem’s case, they chose silence, and the judiciary delivered justice'
- Yahya Assiri, rights activist
The High Court heard during a hearing last week that the hacking and physical attack had a severe impact on the activist’s life.
It heard that he suffers from severe depression, is unable to carry out basic activities or leave the house, and that his once thriving career had now ended.
The case was first brought to the High Court in 2019. Saudi Arabia initially argued that it had immunity under the 1978 State Immunity Act, however, the court ruled in 2022 that the kingdom was not immune.
Later, in 2024, an appeal by Saudi Arabia was struck out after it failed to pay £210,000 in court costs.
“Today’s judgment vindicates our client for seeking to hold the KSA [Kingdom of Saudi Arabia] to account,” said Sapna Malik, a partner at the legal firm Leigh Day, which represented Masarir.
“The grossly intrusive conduct, by which huge amounts of our client’s data and information on every aspect of his life were secretly transmitted to it, has had a profound and long lasting impact on him.
“We hope that the KSA will now promptly pay the compensation awarded to our client so that he may move forward with his life.”
In 2021, an investigation revealed that hundreds of British citizens’ phones had been hacked using Pegasus, including lawyers, academics and dissidents.
Digital nightmare: The Arab dissidents ruined by phone hacking
Read More »The Guardian reported at the time that the UAE government was principally responsible for the selection of UK numbers to be hacked. Saudi Arabia was also accused of involvement.
As well as Masarir and Assiri, an attempt was made to hack the phone of Madawi al-Rasheed, a British-Saudi academic at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
The MEE contributor has for years written about abuses committed in the kingdom.
Rasheed wrote in a column for MEE that she was “overwhelmed by feelings of vulnerability and intrusion” after learning of the hacking attempt.
“As a British citizen of Saudi origin, I have spent more than half my life writing, researching and teaching. You wouldn’t expect me to be hacked,” she wrote.
“But such professional activities are a crime in Saudi Arabia, where the regime is determined to control the narrative about the past, present and future.”