Saudi Arabia sentences US citizen to 16 years over tweets
Dubai (AP): An American citizen has been arrested in Saudi Arabia, tortured and sentenced to 16 years in prison over tweets he sent while in the United States, his son said Tuesday.
Saad Ibrahim Almadi, a 72-year-old retired project manager living in Florida, was arrested last November while visiting family in the kingdom and was sentenced earlier this month, his son Ibrahim told The Associated Press, confirming details that were first reported by the Washington Post. Almadi is a citizen of both Saudi Arabia and the US.
There was no immediate comment from Saudi or US officials.
It appeared to be the latest in a series of recent cases in which Saudis received long jail sentences for social media posts critical of the government.
Saudi authorities have tightened their crackdown on dissent following the rise of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is seeking to open up and transform the ultraconservative kingdom but has adopted a hard line toward any criticism.
A Saudi court recently sentenced a woman to 45 years in prison for allegedly damaging the country through her social media activity. A Saudi doctoral student at Leeds University in England was sentenced to 34 years for spreading rumors and retweeting dissidents, a case that drew international outrage.
Ibrahim says his father was detained over 14 mild tweets sent over the past seven years, mostly criticizing government policies and alleged corruption. He says his father was not an activist but a private citizen expressing his opinion while in the U.S., where freedom of speech is a constitutional right.
President Joe Biden traveled to the oil-rich kingdom in July for a meeting with Prince Mohammed, in which he said he confronted him about human rights. Their meeting and a widely criticized fist-bump marked a sharp turnaround from Biden's earlier vow to make the kingdom a pariah over the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Ibrahim said his father was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Oct. 3 on charges of supporting terrorism. The father was also charged with failing to report terrorism, over tweets that Ibrahim had posted.
His father was also slapped with a 16-year travel ban. If the sentence is carried out, the 72-year-old would be 87 upon his release and barred from returning home to the U.S. unless he reaches the age of 104.
Ibrahim said Saudi authorities warned his family to stay quiet about the case and to not involve the U.S. government. He said his father was tortured after the family contacted the State Department in March.
Ibrahim also accused the State Department of neglecting his father's case by not declaring him a wrongfully detained American, which would elevate his file.
They manipulated me. They told me to stay quiet so they can get him out," Ibrahim said, explaining his decision to go public this week. I am not willing to take a gamble on the Department of State anymore.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Social media campaigns, flexboards won't decide who will be Kerala CM: Chennithala
New Delhi/Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala, a CM hopeful, on Wednesday said that social media campaigns and putting up of flexboards wiill not be the deciding factors for selecting the chief minister of Kerala.
Chennithala made the remark in response to reporters queries in Delhi on the intense social media campaign in favour of V D Satheesan as CM on the ground that he led the UDF poll campaign from the front.
"Who should be CM is not decided based on social media campaigns or the flexboards put up by the supporters. It is decided by the high command in accordance with the procedure already in place.
"As part of that two party observers will reach Kerala by evening and they will speak to all the MLAs. After that, the party high command will take a decision," the senior Congress leader said.
He said that the high command will take the decision based on party interests and everyone will accept it.
Chennithala also rejected queries about whether the alleged contest within the party for the CM post will create any displeasure among the voters.
"There will be no displeasure among voters as there is no contest," he contended.
On whether there was a delay in announcing the CM for Kerala, Chennithala said that the chief minister has not been selected in the other state where polls were held.
"So, can it be said that there is a delay in the case of Kerala?" he asked.
He said that he was in Delhi for a meeting with Rahul Gandhi regarding finalisation of the DCC presidents in Maharashtra.
