(CNN) – US State Department confirmed U.S. citizen Saad Ibrahim Al-Madhi, 72, was arrested in Saudi Arabia, Washington Post reported 16 years in prison for critical tweets for the first time. against the Saudi government.
“We have consistently and extensively raised our concerns about the matter at the highest levels of the Saudi government, both through the channels of Riyadh and Washington, DC, and … as recently as yesterday,” said the Deputy State Department spokesperson. Vidant Patel at a press conference.
Patel also confirmed that no State Department official was present at Saad Al-Madhi’s sentencing hearing, because the Saudi government postponed the hearing without informing the US embassy and never responded to the embassy’s request to attend the hearing weeks earlier than originally planned, Patel said.
Patel said the State Department is still considering whether to classify Al-Madi as “wrongfully detained”.
“The exercise of freedom of expression should never be criminalized,” Patel added.
Patel also said that the last time the US was able to access Saad al-Madhi was on August 10, noting that “in many cases we have difficulty accessing dual nationals detained in Saudi Arabia. But we are doing our best with an urgent consular access order and consular assistance, as we have done in this case as well ”.
