The US citizen jailed in 2021, for tweets against the kingdom was finally released after the Saudi court order. Saad Ibrahim Almadi was arrested when he arrived in the kingdom’s capital to visit his family. The 72-year-old Saad Ibrahim was sentenced to 16 years in prison which was later increased to 19 years.
Imprisoned For Tweeting
After his release, Saad Ibrahim told BBC that the only evidence the kingdom had against him consisted of 14 tweets he made criticizing Saudi’s policies. In his tweets, he criticized demolition of thousands of homes in Mecca and Jeddah along with tweets about the killing of the Washington Post, journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Travel Ban
Although Ibrahim’s charges were dropped, he is still subjected to a travel ban of 16 years by the Saudi kingdom. The kingdom has a history of illegal detentions and its controversial role in the Middle East and Yemen. Both the US officials and the Saudi officials have avoided responding to the developments as no official statement has been released from both sides.
