" Exiled Saudi Dissident Sues McKinsey in U.S. for Outing Him to MBS", 10 Feb 2021

An exiled Saudi dissident is suing consulting firm McKinsey & Co. in the U.S. for allegedly outing him to Saudi authorities as a critic of the kingdom. Omar Abdulaziz, a Montreal-based Saudi activist, filed the lawsuit at New York's Supreme Court on Monday.

Abdulaziz, who sought asylum in Canada in 2013, said McKinsey prepared a report in 2016 identifying him as one of three influential social media critics of Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the kingdom's de facto ruler.

McKinsey either "furnished" the report to the crown prince or his agents, or "allowed" them to access it, the lawsuit says...

Prior to the report, Abdulaziz said he frequently criticized the kingdom's policies and human rights record on social media while attending university in Canada. While the activist applied for political asylum out of fear for his safety, the only official retaliation he had been aware of was a cancellation of his "salary and scholarship."

After McKinsey's report, however, Abdulaziz said Saudi authorities have "imprisoned and tortured" his family, friends and associates in an effort to pressure him into silence...

McKinsey told the Times it was "horrified by the possibility, however remote, that [the report] could have been misused in any way."

In an email to Newsweek, a McKinsey spokesperson said, "McKinsey was never commissioned by the Saudi Government to produce the report at issue in this lawsuit. The document in question was a basic overview of publicly available social media information.

"It was not prepared for any government entity. Its intended audience was internal. We have no evidence that the document in question was misused.

The lawsuit stated one of the two Saudi critics named alongside Abdulaziz was imprisoned following the report, while the other "has disappeared—or has been disappeared." "Every single critic" identified in McKinsey's report has reportedly been imprisoned with the exception of Abdulaziz, whose residence in Canada has kept him safe....