(Dubai, United Arab Emirates) An American citizen was arrested in Saudi Arabia, tortured and sentenced to 16 years in prison for Twitter messages he sent to the United States, his son announced on Tuesday.
Posted at 4:17 p.m.
Saad Ibrahim Almadi, a 72-year-old retired project manager living in Florida, was arrested last November while visiting family in the kingdom and was convicted earlier this month, his son said. son Ibrahim to The Associated Press, confirming details that were first reported by the washington post. Mr. Almadi is a citizen of Saudi Arabia and the United States.
Saudi officials had no immediate comment.
State Department spokesman Vedant Patel confirmed to reporters on Tuesday the detention of Saad Ibrahim Almadi.
“We have consistently and intensely raised our concerns about the case with senior levels of the Saudi government, through both Riyadh and Washington channels, and we will continue to do so,” he said. We raised this issue with members of the Saudi government just yesterday (Monday). »
It is the latest in a recent string of cases in which Saudis have been sentenced to long prison terms for posting criticism of the government on social media.
Saudi authorities have stepped up their crackdown on dissent following the rise of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who seeks to open up and transform the ultraconservative kingdom but has taken a hard line on any criticism.
A Saudi court recently sentenced a woman to 45 years in prison for allegedly damaging the country through her social media activity. A Saudi doctoral student from the University of Leeds in England was sentenced to 34 years in prison for spreading “rumors” and retweeting the words of dissidents, a case that sparked international outrage.
Mr Almadi says his father has been detained for 14 “light-hearted tweets” posted over the past seven years, mostly criticizing government policies and alleged corruption. He claims that his father was not an activist, but a citizen expressing his opinion in the United States, where freedom of expression is a constitutional right.
President Joe Biden visited the oil-rich kingdom in July for a meeting with Prince Mohammed, during which he said he confronted him about human rights. Their meeting — and a widely criticized fist-to-mouth — marked a stark reversal from Mr Biden’s earlier vow to make the kingdom a ‘pariah’ following the 2018 killing of the Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist. , Jamal Khashoggi.
Mr Almadi said his father was sentenced to 16 years in prison on October 3 for supporting terrorism. The father was also accused of failing to report terrorism, because of Twitter messages his son had posted.
Her father was also given a 16-year travel ban. If the sentence is carried out, the 72-year-old would be 87 on his release and prohibited from returning home to the United States unless he reaches the age of 104.
Ibrahim Almadi said Saudi authorities had warned his family to keep quiet about the matter and not to implicate the US government. He said his father was tortured after the family contacted the State Department in March.
Mr. Almadi also accused the State Department of neglecting his father’s case by not declaring him American “wrongfully detained”, which would weigh down his case.
“They manipulated me. They told me to be quiet so they could get him out, Ibrahim said, explaining his decision to go public this week. I am no longer willing to bet on the State Department”.