A US citizen who traveled to Saudi Arabia to go to household reportedly acquired a 16-year jail sentence for posting tweets essential of the Saudi authorities. The sentence was imposed on 72-year-old Saad Ibrahim Almadi, in line with his son, Ibrahim Almadi.

Ibrahim Almadi spoke to a number of information organizations concerning the sentence imposed on his father, who reportedly holds each US and Saudi citizenship and has lived within the US because the Seventies. He alleges that his father was tortured in Saudi jail and that the US State Department mishandled the case. The punishment is because of tweets that expressed “gentle opinions concerning the authorities,” his son stated.

President Biden “bought my father for oil,” Ibrahim Almadi informed the New York Post. “Biden simply cares about votes. He does not care about my father, he does not care about American residents.” (Almadi additionally stated he’s a Democrat who voted for Biden.)

The tweets that landed Saad Ibrahim Almadi in a Saudi jail had been posted whereas he was contained in the US, The Washington Post wrote yesterday. Almadi was detained when he traveled to Riyadh to go to household in November 2021, and was sentenced almost a yr later, on October 3.

No dissident, Almadi is “simply a project manager”

The Washington Post report says:

Almadi is just not a dissident or an activist; he’s merely a mission supervisor from Florida who determined to observe his proper to free speech contained in the United States… “He had what I’d name gentle opinions concerning the authorities,” his son Ibrahim informed me. “They took him from the airport.”

Almadi was charged with harboring a terrorist ideology, making an attempt to destabilize the dominion, in addition to supporting and funding terrorism. He was additionally charged with failing to report terrorism, a cost associated to tweets Ibrahim despatched on a separate account.

Ibrahim Almadi stated his father acquired two visits in jail from US officers, with the primary coming six months after his arrest. Almadi additionally criticized the US response to his father’s imprisonment in an interview with the BBC:

He informed the BBC that he believes there are double requirements over Saudi Arabia, saying the US would take agency motion if a citizen had been detained in Russia or Iran. “But when you’re held in Saudi Arabia, a barrel of oil is value greater than you, habibi,” he stated.

A supply on the US State Department informed the BBC when requested about Saad’s case throughout President Biden’s journey to Saudi Arabia that it had no increased obligation than defending US residents overseas, however that it couldn’t remark additional.

Ibrahim Almadi stated his father visited Saudi Arabia with out desirous about his previous Twitter posts. The tweets introduced as proof “included writing that officers had been unable to guard nationwide borders amid rocket hearth from Iran-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen, encouraging individuals to get Lebanese citizenship, and endorsing the concept of naming a road after [the murdered journalist Jamal] Khashoggi,” in line with the New York Post. The tweets additionally included “criticism of the demolition of previous components of the cities of Mecca and Jeddah” and “concern over poverty within the kingdom,” the BBC wrote.

US “told Ibrahim not to speak publicly”

Almadi reportedly acquired each a 16-year jail sentence and a 16-year journey ban to be enforced after launch. He’d should dwell to age 104 to return to the US if the sentence is not lowered.

“I really feel empty inside. I really feel useless inside. I really feel betrayed,” Ibrahim Almadi informed The Washington Post. “He’s not solely my father, he is my finest good friend. He is every thing to me.”

Ibrahim Almadi initially labored behind the scenes, urging the US authorities to intervene. But he is talking out now that the sentence has been handed down. “The State Department informed Ibrahim to not converse publicly concerning the case, however he not believes that staying quiet will safe his father’s freedom. And he says that State has dealt with his father’s case with neglect and incompetence,” The Washington Post wrote.

Ibrahim Almadi says he informed the State Department the sentencing listening to was scheduled for October 3 however that no US official attended.

“A senior State Department official confirmed that the consular affairs workplace in Washington did not alert the embassy when the listening to date was moved up, despite the fact that Ibrahim had notified them,” The Washington Post wrote. “‘Unfortunately, that info wasn’t handed [to the embassy],’ the official stated. ‘That is one thing we deeply remorse.'”

This official additionally reportedly stated the Biden administration raised Almadi’s case with the Saudi authorities at senior ranges. But the State Department continues to be figuring out whether or not Almadi might be designated as “wrongfully detained,” a designation that might enhance US efforts to free him.