Saudi Arabia sentences U.S. citizen to 16 years in prison over tweets, family says
U.S. State Department confirms Saad Ibrahim Almadi's detention, says it has raised 'concerns'
A U.S. citizen has been arrested in Saudi Arabia, tortured and sentenced to 16 years in prison over tweets he sent while in the United States, his son said Tuesday.
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 sentenced earlier this month, his son Ibrahim Almadi told The Associated Press, confirming details that were first reported by the Washington Post. Almadi is a citizen of both Saudi Arabia and the U.S.
There was no immediate comment from Saudi officials.
Speaking at a press briefing, U.S. State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel confirmed Almadi's detention and said Washington first raised its concerns with Riyadh in December 2021, as soon as it was made aware of the arrest.
"We have consistently and intensively raised our concerns regarding the case at senior levels of the Saudi government ... and we will continue to do so. We have raised this with members of the Saudi government as recently as yesterday," Patel said.
He did not say what Almadi was charged with but said: "Exercising the freedom of expression should never be criminalized."
14 'mild tweets' over 7 years: son
It appeared to be the latest in a series of recent cases in which Saudis received long jail sentences for social media posts critical of the government.
Saudi authorities have tightened their crackdown on dissent following the rise of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is seeking to open up and transform the ultraconservative kingdom but has adopted a hard line towards any criticism.
A Saudi court recently sentenced a woman, Nourah bint Saeed al-Qahtani, to 45 years in prison for allegedly damaging the country through her social media activity. A Saudi doctoral student at Leeds University in England, Salma al-Shehab, was sentenced to 34 years for spreading "rumours" and retweeting dissidents, a case that drew international outrage.
Ibrahim says his father was detained over 14 "mild tweets" sent over the past seven years, mostly criticizing government policies and alleged corruption.
He says his father was not an activist but a private citizen expressing his opinion while in the U.S., where freedom of speech is a constitutional right.
Biden's visit marked turnaround
U.S. President Joe Biden travelled to the oil-rich kingdom in July for a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in which he said he confronted him about human rights.
Their meeting — and a widely criticized fist-bump — marked a sharp turnaround from Biden's earlier vow to make the kingdom a "pariah" over the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
THE NOW INFAMOUS FIST BUMP WITH
MOHAMMED 'BONESAW' SALMAN
Ibrahim said that on Oct. 3, his father was sentenced to 16 years in prison on charges of supporting terrorism. The father was also charged with failing to report terrorism, over tweets that Ibrahim had posted.
He said his father was also slapped with a 16-year travel ban. If the sentence is carried out, the 72-year-old would be 87 upon his release and barred from returning home to the U.S. unless he reaches the age of 104.
Ibrahim said Saudi authorities warned his family to stay quiet about the case and to not involve the U.S. government. He said his father was tortured after the family contacted the State Department in March.
Ibrahim also accused the State Department of neglecting his father's case by not declaring him a "wrongfully detained" American, which would elevate his file.
"They manipulated me. They told me to stay quiet so they can get him out," Ibrahim said, explaining his decision to go public this week. "I am not willing to take a gamble on the Department of State anymore."
With files from Reuters
US citizen jailed in Saudi for tweets on Khashoggi, Yemen: son
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 19 2022
Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, shown here at a news conference in 2014, was murdered in 2018 in Turkey.
By AFP
A US citizen jailed in Saudi Arabia is being punished for "mild" Twitter posts on topics including the war in Yemen and the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, his son told AFP on Wednesday.
Saad Ibrahim Almadi, a 72-year-old of Saudi origin, was this month sentenced to 16 years in prison, the latest in a spate of what human rights groups describe as draconian sentences for social media criticism of the government.
The case risks further ratcheting up tensions between Riyadh and Washington, longtime partners currently at odds over oil output cuts approved by the OPEC+ cartel, which the White House says amount to "aligning with Russia" in the Ukraine war.
Almadi was detained on arrival in Saudi Arabia in November last year for what was meant to be a two-week trip, said his son Ibrahim, who went public with the case this week, criticising US officials for failing to do more to secure his release.
The State Department said on Tuesday it had "consistently and intensively raised our concerns regarding the case at senior levels of the Saudi government", and that "exercising freedom of expression should never be criminalised".
On Wednesday, Ibrahim shared with AFP a list of Twitter posts he said had been used in evidence against his father -- information he said had been confirmed by the State Department.
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They include posts on taxes as well as controversial demolition work in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.
One post questions why Saudi Arabia is unable to prevent attacks by Huthi rebels in war-wracked Yemen, where the kingdom heads a military coalition in support of the internationally recognised government.
Another refers to the "sacrifice" of Khashoggi, whose killing by Saudi agents in the kingdom's Istanbul consulate sparked global outrage.
Saudi officials also found an unflattering caricature of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto ruler, on Almadi's phone, Ibrahim said.
- Case 'mishandled' -
Almadi was charged in part with supporting and funding terrorism and trying to destabilise the kingdom, Ibrahim said.
Ibrahim accused the State Department of having "mishandled" his father's case, including by not sending a representative to the October 3 sentencing -- something the State Department acknowledged on Tuesday, saying Saudi Arabia originally gave a later date for the hearing before moving it up.
"My father should be their biggest worry from day one," Ibrahim said, referring to US officials.
"The problems and the tensions between Saudi and the US shouldn't start because of oil. It should start because senior American citizens are detained over tweets."
Ibrahim also expressed concern for his father's health.
"They prevent him from sleeping. They make him stand up. He's 72 years old and his health condition is just decreasing," Ibrahim said by phone from the US, where he lives.
"He had back problems. He needs surgery done as soon as possible in his back. I already have an appointment for him here."
Saudi officials have not commented on Almadi's case or on other recent verdicts against people who criticised the government on social media.
Nourah al-Qahtani, a mother of five in her late 40s, was recently sentenced for 45 years for using Twitter to "challenge" the country's leaders.
Salma al-Shehab, a doctoral candidate at Britain's University of Leeds, was sentenced to 34 years in prison for allegedly aiding dissidents seeking to "disrupt public order" by retweeting their posts.
Democracy for the Arab World Now, a US-based rights group founded by Khashoggi, said last week the verdicts could reflect recent appointments to the Specialised Criminal Court, which handles such cases.
"The Crown Prince is appointing loyalist security officials who lack even basic training as judges to its kangaroo 'counter-terrorism' court, punishing the mildest social dissent with shocking sentences," said Abdullah Alaoudh, DAWN's Gulf director.
Ali Shihabi, a Saudi analyst close to the government, said on Twitter on Tuesday that Saudi authorities were "managing a tricky transition that could easily slip into civil strife".
"Govt. is prioritizing stability as it imposes change on a very polarized society," he said.
"This is a very imperfect process + prosecutorial/judicial overreach is happening."
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