Saudi Arabia has released a US citizen, a 72-year-old retiree from Florida, who had been jailed for more than a year for his old tweets criticizing the kingdom’s crown prince, his son said.
Neither Saudi nor American officials immediately confirmed the release of Saad al Madi, a longtime Florida resident, but the progress of his release had been rumored since last week.
Al Madi was at home Monday night with relatives who live in Riyadh, his son, Ibrahim al Madi, said in the United States.
Saudi authorities have dropped all charges against the elderly Madi, who holds dual US and Saudi citizenship, but the kingdom is not believed to have lifted the travel ban it had imposed to follow the prison sentence.
“All charges have been dropped, but we have to fight the travel ban now,” Ibrahim said Monday night.
Saudi Arabia has freed Saudi-American citizen Saad Ibrahim Almadi after being jailed for more than a year for his past tweets criticizing the kingdom’s crown prince.
His son, Ibrahim Almadi, left, poses for a photo with his father, Saad, at a Florida resort in June 2021.
Almadi, a dual U.S. and Saudi national, was living in retirement in Florida. He was arrested after landing in Riyadh in November 2021 on various charges, including financing terrorism and working to destabilize the kingdom.
Saad Almadi, a 72-year-old retired project manager living in Florida, had his prison sentence increased from 16 to 19 years.
Almadi, a dual US and Saudi national who had been retired in Florida, was arrested after landing in Riyadh in November 2021 on various charges, including financing terrorism and working to destabilize the kingdom.
Saudi Arabia had sentenced Madi last year to 16 years in prison, saying his tweets critical of how the kingdom was run amounted to acts of terror against him.
The social media posts, which Ibrahim previously described as “soft”, included condemnations of the Saudi government’s inability to protect its borders from rocket fire from Yemen’s Houthi rebels, an Iran-allied group.
Other posts included criticism of poverty in Saudi Arabia and references to murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Khashoggi’s 2018 death sparked a wave of controversy amid allegations it was orchestrated by the Saudi government, after it was revealed the Washington Post reporter was ambushed by a Saudi assassination squad with close ties to the crown prince. Mohammed bin Salman.
The journalist was allegedly killed to eliminate a prominent critic of the Saudi government, prompting Almadi to later express his support for naming a street after him.
Following the tweets, Almadi, a 72-year-old retired project manager living in Florida at the time, was arrested in November 2021 while visiting family in Saudi Arabia.
Following Almadi’s sentencing, a US State Department spokesman told a news conference that the US government tried to pressure the Saudi government into releasing him.
Saad Ibrahim Almadi, 72, received a 16-year prison sentence in Saudi Arabia, later increased to 19 years for tweets critical of the country. He is pictured with his son, Ibrahim Almadi.
Ibrahim Almadi (left) said his father, Saad Ibrahim Almadi, 72, (right) was arrested after traveling to Riyadh to see his family in November 2021.
The case had been one of many alleged human rights abuses that soured relations between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and President Biden, pictured together last July.
Saad Almadi’s son previously criticized the White House for apparently taking a “soft stance” on his father’s detention in Saudi Arabia. Biden is photographed fist bumping MBS last summer
They said the United States has “consistently and intensively raised our concerns about the case at high levels of the Saudi government, both through channels in Riyadh and in Washington, DC.”
As US officials worked to win his release, and after President Joe Biden traveled to Saudi Arabia last July in a bid to improve relations with the oil-rich nation, a Saudi appeals court increased the prison sentence of Maddy at 19 years old.
Biden, who had initially taken a tough stance on Riyadh’s human rights record, visited Riyadh to push for more oil supplies and seek help isolating Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.
The case had been one of many alleged human rights abuses that soured relations between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Biden.
Since imprisonment in Saudi Arabia, Madi has been tortured and forced to live with real terrorists, his son told the Washington Post last year.
The Freedom Initiative, a US-based group that advocates for detainees it says are wrongfully detained in the Middle East, says at least four US citizens and one lawful permanent resident have already been detained in Saudi Arabia under bans on trip, and that at least one other senior American citizen remains in jail.
Many of the travel bans targeted dual nationals advocating for greater rights in the kingdom.
