Being critical of the regime of King Salman ibn Abd al-Aziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia can have drastic consequences. Political parties are banned and the royal family cracks down on their opponents. A 72-year-old US citizen found out that it doesn’t take much to be targeted by the authoritarian regime.
Saad Ibrahim Almadi holds both American and Saudi Arabian citizenship. In November 2021, he was arrested at the airport while visiting his home country, according to his family. The accusation: supporting terrorism.
It was about 14 tweets in which Almaid had criticized the political situation in Saudi Arabia over a period of seven years. At the beginning of October he was therefore sentenced to 16 years in prison, reports the “Washington Post”. A spokesman for the US State Department in Washington confirmed the verdict.
Almadi, who lives in Florida and works there as a project manager, was tortured after his arrest, his son Ibrahim Almadi reported to the US newspaper. His father only had “mild opinions about the government,” according to the son. Nevertheless, the regime accused the 72-year-old of wanting to destabilize the kingdom.
In addition to the 16-year prison sentence, he was also given a 16-year travel ban. Almadi would be 88 years old when he got out of prison and would not be allowed to leave the country until he was 104. His tweets included corruption in the kingdom and the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Kashoggi.
Even his US citizenship could not protect Almadi from conviction. His son raises allegations against the State Department in Washington: The government of US President Joe Biden did not put enough pressure on Saudi Arabia to get his father released.
It was six months before Almadi was visited in prison by a representative from the American embassy. The prisoner initially refused intervention by the US government for fear of torture. When he asked for it on a second visit, he was promptly tortured.
After Ibrahim Almadi presented his father’s case to a special office, he was only told that the matter was being “worked on”. However, there was no progress. The regime, in turn, threatened his family that they would “lose everything” if they went public with his father’s fate, writes the Washington Post.
Sources: Washington Post / AP
