Saudi Arabia frees 72-year-old American who tweeted about its government

Saudi Arabia has freed a 72-year-old American citizen who had been jailed over critical tweets about the kingdom's government and crown prince, his son said Tuesday.

Saad Ibrahim Almadi, a U.S.-based Saudi national and retired project manager who had lived in Florida, had been imprisoned for more than a year and sentenced to 19 years.

His son, Ibrahim Almadi, told NBC News early Tuesday that all charges against his father had been dropped, and he was with his family in Riyadh, but he was banned from travelling.

He considers the United States home, not Saudi, according to Ibrahim of his father, adding that he was concerned for the elder Almadi's health.

He needs immediate medical treatment and attention in the United States. He said that the travel ban is quite concerning for us. Ibrahim said he was confident that the family would be able to bring his father back to his family in the U.S. with the help of the State Department.

Neither the U.S. government nor Saudi authorities have confirmed Almadi's release.

The case was one of many alleged human rights abuses to strain ties between the two countries last year, which had a public spat over oil supply after the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

President Joe Biden previously said he had raised concerns about Almadi s imprisonment and the cases of other U.S. citizens during meetings with King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman when he visited Saudi Arabia in July to reset relations.

Human rights groups have raised concerns about Saudi authorities' crackdown on dissent since the ascent of the crown prince, a de facto ruler who is trying to open up and modernize the ultraconservative kingdom.

After landing in Riyadh in Nov. 2021, Almadi's son said his father was arrested on several charges, including supporting terrorism.

He was sentenced in October 2022 by a criminal court to 16 years in prison. An appeals court increased his sentence to 19 years last month.

Ibrahim said he was arrested over a number of tweets sent over the last few years.

He stated that his father was not an activist but a private citizen who expressed his views on Twitter while he was in the U.S. where freedom of speech is a constitutional right.

One of Almadi's tweets included a note about the crown prince's consolidation of power in the kingdom and a tweet remarking Khashoggi's killing, according to The Associated Press.

The news of Almadi's release comes a week after his son met with State Department representatives. Ibrahim wrote on Mar. 26 that he blew the whistle on Saad's condition. His only way back is through wrongfully detained recognition. He stated that the process is ongoing and that the freedom of speech should never be criminalized.

The Freedom Initiative, a U.S. based human rights organization that advocates for the freedom of prisoners wrongfully detained across the Middle East and North Africa, welcomed the news in a statement released Tuesday.

Abdullah Alaoudh, the Saudi director of the organization, said in a statement that he was relieved that Saad Almadi had been released, but he should never spent a day in jail for innocuous tweets.

The Freedom Initiative says that six US citizens are currently being held in Saudi Arabia, where they are being held or are being held under politically motivated travel bans.

Alaoudh said that there are far too many people in Saudi detention who don't have the benefit of U.S. citizenship to draw attention to their cases. The release of Almadi shows that strategic pressure works, and U.S. officials should continue to press for the release of prisoners and the lifting of travel bans.