Joe Dodson reports:
A Fourth Circuit appeal panel dismissed on Wednesday claims by the widow of journalist Jamal Khashoggi that an Israeli spy firm’s technology allowed Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to illegally track her communications in the lead-up to her husband’s political assassination.
Though Hanan Elatr Khashoogi, an Egyptian citizen in Virginia, claimed Israel-based NSO Group Technologies used its Pegasus software to illegally track her phone on Saudi Arabia’s behalf, the three-judge panel ruled that Hanan had not adequately shown that NSO Group, as opposed to the Saudi or Emirati governments, conducted surveillance of her devices.
“Khashoggi’s allegations that her data was captured and rerouted to the UAE (and ultimately Saudi Arabia) when she was home with Jamal in Virginia do not suffice to create a substantial connection with Virginia for purposes of personal jurisdiction,” Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Henry Floyd, a Barack Obama appointee, wrote.
Read more at Courthouse News.