The United States said today it is raising a criminal sentence against a U. S. citizen with Saudi Arabia, when the guy criticized the kingdom for tweets.
The State Department showed the detention of Saad Ibrahim Almadi, a U. S. citizen of Saudi descent, and said the U. S. had raised its case in December and just yesterday.
“We have consistently and intensively raised our considerations on the case at the highest levels of the Saudi government, whether through the channels of Riyadh and Washington, D. C. ,” State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.
“The exercise of freedom of expression will never be criminalized,” he said.
The Washington Post reported that Almadi, who lives in Florida and had stopped by his family, was arrested at the airport in November for 14 tweets he had written over the past seven years.
Citing his son, the newspaper said Almadi, 72, was sentenced on Oct. 3 to 16 years in prison with a ban of another 16 years thereafter.
His son, Ibrahim, told the newspaper that his father had expressed only “moderate” perspectives with tweets about corruption in Saudi Arabia and the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the American columnist who was dismembered in 2018 after being lured to the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul. . .
Almadi has been accused in part of supporting and investing in terrorism and trying to destabilize the kingdom, his son said.
The death of Khashoggi, who wrote for The Washington Post, sparked outrage in Washington, even as then-President Donald Trump boasted that he had saved the tough crown prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, from major repercussions.
President Joe Biden declassified intelligence showing the crown prince ordered the assassination and vowed to harden his tone on Saudi Arabia’s fatal offensive in Yemen.
However, Biden visited Saudi Arabia in July and was photographed punching the crown prince at a location believed to be seeking the kingdom’s help in reducing gasoline costs by pumping more oil.
But OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, announced on Oct. 5 a cut in primary production ahead of U. S. congressional elections, shocking Biden, who promised consequences.
Saudi Arabia has long been criticized for human rights. Blogger and rights activist Raif Badawi served 10 years in prison until March and was publicly flogged 50 times for fees similar to the content of his website.
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