Prior to his dismissal in late 2018, he worked as an advisor to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.
[12][4] He received a bachelor's degree in law from King Saud University,[13] and graduated with the rank of sergeant from the Royal Saudi Air Force.
[10][21][22] Al-Qahtani also served on the board of directors of King Abdul Aziz University, the MiSK Foundation, the Royal Commission for Al-Ula, and the Saudi Union for Cyber Security and Programming.
[26] The activists, who had been campaigning against the male guardianship system and for the right to drive, were reportedly subjected to sexual assault, electrical torture, flogging, and threats of rape and murder.
[27] The United States intelligence community has identified al-Qahtani as the ringleader of the assassination of Saudi dissident and Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
[28] Al-Qahtani acted as the head of what American intelligence officials called the Saudi Rapid Intervention Group, which has reportedly undertaken at least a dozen operations since 2017.
On December 5, 2018, the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office requested, and was issued, an arrest warrant for Saud al-Qahtani for the murder of Khashoggi.
[39] Khalil Jahshan, executive director of the Arab Center based in Washington DC, stated in an interview with Al Jazeera, that al-Qahtani's "disappearance" was a "natural progression of [Saudi Arabia's] investigation" and is likely used as a strategy to keep crown prince Mohammed bin Salman protected from accusations regarding Khashoggi's murder: "They have sheltered some of the key players accused of being involved [in the murder] whether by Turkey or by the international community.
"[40] In December 2019, Saudi state TV reported that al-Qahtani was being investigated for his role in the murder of Khashoggi but was cleared of any charges as there was no proof of involvement.
[43] March 7, 2019, al-Qahtani reportedly signed an order instructing "a technical team to carry out the "penetration" of The Guardian's computer servers "in complete secrecy"".
[44] According to an analysis by FTI Consulting, al-Qahtani procured the tools used to hack Jeff Bezos' mobile phone (CEO of Amazon and owner of The Washington Post) - five months before the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
[47] Agnes Callamard, UN special rapporteur on summary executions and extrajudicial killings, and David Kaye, UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression, issued the joint statement, which emphasized that "at a time when Saudi Arabia was supposedly investigating the killing of Mr. Khashoggi, and prosecuting those it deemed responsible, it was clandestinely waging a massive online campaign against Mr. Bezos and Amazon targeting him principally as the owner of The Washington Post," ... "the alleged hacking of Mr. Bezos's phone, and those of others, demands immediate investigation by US and other relevant authorities, including investigation of the continuous, multi-year, direct and personal involvement of the crown prince in efforts to target perceived opponents."
UN investigators concluded that Saudi use of the Pegasus spyware, which enables remote surveillance of cellphones, from controversial Israeli technology firm NSO Group was the “most likely explanation” the hacking attack against Bezos.
This news is backing reports since May, June and August 2021 that several messages of support have appeared on pro-government social media accounts, praising the man as "hero", "patriot" and "leader".