Saudi Arabia's 'Davos in the Desert' conference website hacked

Portal pulled down days after the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi consulate in Istanbul

The Future Investment Initiative, a conference in Saudi Arabia nicknamed 'Davos in the Desert', website was seemingly hacked on Monday, Newsweek reported.

The three-day conference, which is set to begin tomorrow (Tuesday), has been rocked by controversy since the killing of Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

After Khashoggi entered the consulate and was not seen leaving, Saudi Arabia finally acknowledged his death over the weekend. However, the kingdom claimed that his death was the work of a “rogue operation” and that the crown prince was unaware of it.

A number of high-powered CEOs and political leaders, including US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, subsequently pulled out of the conference after much public outcry over the death of the Saudi journalist.

“For the sake of security for children worldwide, we urge all countries to put sanction on the Saudi regime,” read a message on the website’s homepage before the site went down shortly after.



“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,” the message further reads.

The rest of the website's homepage was replaced by messages of Saudi’s business investments with further claims about its financing of terrorism.

International pressure was ramped up on Saudi Arabia with German Chancellor Angela Merkel announcing a freeze on its arms deal with the kingdom and urging allies to do the same. Thus far, however, President Donald Trump has been reluctant to criticise the Saudi leaders and signalled an unwillingness to jeopardise the US arms sales.

The article originally appeared in Newsweek