An American citizen who had been detained in Saudi Arabia for more than a year and was serving a 19-year sentence for his previous tweets criticizing the country’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman(MBS) was freed on Monday. Saad Ibrahim Almadi, a retired project manager from Florida who was 72 years old, was detained in the kingdom in November 2021 while visiting family.
Almadi was apparently cleared of all accusations by Saudi authorities, but he was still subject to a travel ban as a result of the prison sentence, thus it was uncertain if he would be permitted to return to the States.
Ibrahim al Madi, Almadi’s son, revealed that his father spent Monday night at home with relatives who live in Riyadh.
“I welcome the release of Saad Almadi, my father and best friend,” Ibrahim said. “As I always say, we are the strongest country in the world. We can protect our interests and citizens.”
“Our fight is not over until Saad is back…He needs medical attention in the states.”
Saad Almadi was detained and subsequently found guilty in relation to 14 of his tweets
Almadi was detained and subsequently found guilty in relation to 14 of his tweets from the previous eight years in which he continued to criticize Saudi Arabia and its policies. Almadi expressed his support for Washington renaming a boulevard after murdered Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in one of the tweets. He urged fellow Saudis to adopt Lebanese citizenship in another tweet. Several statements criticized the policies of the Saudi administration and the corruption within the Saudi system.
Following Almadi’s visit to the kingdom, the authorities swiftly detained him and filed charges against him, alleging that he had harbored terrorist ideologies, supported and funded terrorism, and had tried to destabilize the country.
In addition to a 16-year travel ban, the Saudi court sentenced him to 16 years in prison in October 2022. His abrupt release is puzzling because, strangely enough, three more years were added to his sentence last month.
Experts have said that recent improvements in US-Saudi relations explain Almadi’s early release
The recent improvement in US-Saudi relations has been put out as a possible explanation for Almadi’s early release by several experts. Two years after the position was left vacant, the US Senate this week approved Michael Ratney for the position of envoy to Riyadh.
Furthermore, on Tuesday, US aircraft manufacturer Boeing agreed to sell 121 aircraft to Saudi Arabia’s newbie airlines Riyadh Air and Saudia Airlines.