Saudi Arabia Jails US Citizen For 16 Years Over Tweets Critical Of Regime

Saudi Arabia has sentenced a U.S. citizen to 16 years in prison over tweets he made while in America, some of which were critical of the Saudi regime.

What Happened: A 72-year-old resident of Florida, Saad Ibrahim Almadi, was arrested in November while visiting his family in Saudi Arabia and was sentenced earlier this month. The State Department confirmed Almadi’s detention on Tuesday.

See Also: Joe Biden Says Saudi Arabia Will Face 'Consequences For What They've Done With Russia'

The State Department’s Deputy Spokesman Vedant Patel, during the news briefing, said, “We have consistently and intensively raised our concerns regarding the case at senior levels of the Saudi government, both through channels in Riyadh and Washington DC as well, and we will continue to do so.”

“Exercising the freedom of expression should never be criminalized. We have raised this with members of the Saudi government as recently as yesterday.”

The arrest was the latest in a series of cases in which the Saudi authorities have ordered long jail sentences for people making critical posts on social media about the government. Earlier, a Saudi woman studying in the U.K. was sentenced to 34 years in prison for having an account on Twitter.

The latest sentencing comes a few months after U.S. President Joe Biden met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah on July 15.

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