A US citizen visiting family in Saudi Arabia was arrested for a series of tweets criticizing the country's crown prince, leading to a jail sentence and Saudi officials forcing him to give up his passport.
Saad Almadi, a retired project manager who resides in Florida, immigrated to the US from the Middle East in the 1970s. During a visit to his home country in 2021, Almadi was sentenced to more than 19 years in prison on terrorism-related charges because of his tweets but released after one year and given an exit ban, preventing him from returning to Boca Raton, AP News reported.
Almadi was told the ban would be lifted if he returned his American passport to the US Embassy, which he attempted to do, but the embassy denied his request because they deemed it was not voluntarily on his part.
His son, Ibrahim, quit his finance job and moved to D.C. to advocate for his 74-year-old father's return but was told it would be complicated since Saudi Arabia is an ally.
"Words can't describe it," Almadi told AP News. "I used to focus on advancing my life, I'm still only 28. But now all I think about is what to do, how to act, what to say, and what not to say, to secure my dad's release."
The matter will be exacerbated when President-elect Donald Trump takes office since he has close business ties with the nation.
The Trump Organization plans to build a luxury high-rise apartment building in Saudi Arabia and his son-in-law Jared Kushner received a $2 billion investment from the sovereign wealth fund controlled by the crown prince.
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