Ajit Karn
According to the report, Saudi Arabia has released an American citizen from prison more than a year after convicting him for tweets critical of the kingdom. 72-year-old Saad Ibrahim Almadi was initially sentenced to 16 years in prison in October 2017 for tweets denigrating Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. According to the report, an appeals court increased the prison term to 19 years last month, and neither US nor Saudi authorities have commented on his release.
Saad Almadi was at a family home in Riyadh, according to Ibrahim, Saad Almadi’s son. However, he emphasised that the family must now battle a travel restriction.
“All charges have been dropped, but we must now fight the travel ban,” Ibrahim was quoted by the news agency Reuters as adding.
Mr. Almadi was judged guilty of attempting to destabilise the kingdom and was also charged with terrorism support. The Saudis had issued him a sixteen-year travel prohibition.
Mr. Almadi had, according to the BBC, criticised the destruction of ancient sections of Mecca and Jeddah, voiced concern over poverty in the kingdom, and made allusion to murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in his tweets.
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Mr. Almadi, who is also a citizen of Saudi Arabia, was detained in November 2021 when he travelled from Florida to Riyadh to visit his family.
President Joe Biden raised the issue of Mr. Almadi’s arrest during his July 2022 visit to Saudi Arabia.
The death of Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post, sparked outrage in Washington, despite the fact that the then-president of the United States, Donald Trump, boasted of sparing the powerful Saudi crown prince from severe consequences.
President Joe Biden declassified intelligence indicating that the crown prince ordered the killing and pledged to take a tougher stance, including with regard to Saudi Arabia’s lethal offensive in Yemen.
