WASHINGTON (AP) — Saudi Arabia has released an American woman it detained this week after tweeting and talking about her efforts to leave the country with her Saudi daughter, according to a U. S. official and an advocacy organization of U. S. officials Thursday.
Carly Morris was released early Wednesday, after being summoned and detained Monday by the Saudi government in the north-central city of Buraidah, according to Freedom Initiative. The Washington-based organization defends prisoners it mistakenly considers detained in the Middle East.
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Morris, who the organization said was chained in front of her 8-year-old daughter, was questioned while in police custody about her tweets and contacts with media and human rights teams, her three-year effort to leave the kingdom with her son, Freedom. Initiative said.
State Department spokesman Ned Price showed the release of the American. He said U. S. diplomats are very concerned about the case.
Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Washington and the Foreign Ministry did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Saudi Arabia, under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has cracked down on speech on Twitter and elsewhere through which the government sees as critical or rival. recent months for comments on Twitter or, according to Saudi court documents in one case, phone calls.
Morris traveled to Saudi Arabia in 2019 for what was intended to be a short stay to allow her daughter to meet the Saudi father’s family, said Bethany Al-Haidari, Freedom Initiative’s case manager in Saudi Arabia.
Morris had to deal with Saudi Arabia’s strict male guardianship legislation in her efforts to leave with her daughter. Morris’ lawyers say Saudi Arabia also placed the American woman under one of its widely imposed bans, preventing her from leaving the kingdom.
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AP diplomatic writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.
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