A federal judge orders the former OpenAI engineer accused of bugging a conference room held, as prosecutors say his wife and son left the US on a ticket paid for by a Saudi military official

Judge Alex Tse of the federal court in San Francisco on 19 October refused to release Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi former OpenAI engineer, to home confinement, siding with prosecutors, AP reported. Alfozan is charged with using a device to intercept oral communications, which carries up to five years in prison. The Switchboard reported the charge on 17 October.

In a detention memo, prosecutors said Alfozan was “mere days” from leaving the country, AP reported. They said his wife and son left the US the day after his arrest on a one-way ticket paid for by a Saudi military official, and that he was in “frequent communication” with a member of the Saudi royal family. The SF Standard reports that in the memo, filed on Sunday, prosecutors called him a flight risk and a danger to the community.

Al-Monitor reports that Tse found a “significant” risk that Alfozan would not appear, and notes that the US and Saudi Arabia have no extradition treaty. Defence lawyer William Pernik said Alfozan was “weeks away from achieving every immigrant's dream,” AP reported, and offered almost all of his assets as bond.

The defence noted that the complaint does not charge Alfozan with theft of trade secrets or acting as a foreign agent, the SF Standard reports. Prosecutors say their investigation is ongoing, Al-Monitor reports. The court filing itself was not visible from here.

• Reported The judge denied release to home confinement; prosecutors said Alfozan was “mere days” from leaving, AP reported. AP, via KSAT
• Reported Prosecutors said his wife and son left on a one-way ticket paid for by a Saudi military official, AP reported. AP, via KSAT
• Reported Tse found a “significant” risk Alfozan would not appear; the US and Saudi Arabia have no extradition treaty, Al-Monitor reports. Al-Monitor