By Michael Hernandez
WASHINGTON (AA) - The State Department confirmed Tuesday the detention of Saudi-American dual national Saad Ibrahim Almadi in the Kingdom, saying it has raised concerns about his detention directly with Riyadh.
Spokesman Vedant Patel said the US first raised concerns about Almadi's arrest in December 2021 when it became aware that he was taken into custody in Saudi Arabia, and last addressed the case Monday. Almadi was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Oct. 3.
The Saudi government offered no information to the State Department on the date of Almadi's sentencing hearing until after it transpired despite "repeated requests" from the US Embassy in Saudi Arabia, said Patel.
Almadi, 72, was taken into custody in November 2021 when he traveled to Saudi Arabia to visit family, the Washington Post reported Monday. At issue are 14 tweets he posted in the past seven years, including some that address Jamal Khashoggi, the Post's contributor who was brutally murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Almadi's son, Ibrahim, said his father had been tortured while in Saudi custody and imprisoned in deplorable conditions alongside extremist militants.
Patel said the US is still working to determine whether Almadi was "wrongfully detained," but maintained that "freedom of expression should never be criminalized."
"As it relates to a potential designation, that process is ongoing. We are looking into it. There are a number of strict criteria that are involved in making that designation. So I'm just not going to get ahead of that deliberative process," he added.
Should the agency green light the "wrongfully detained" designation, Almadi's case would be shifted from the department's consular affairs agency to the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs (SPEHA), which is better resourced to handle such cases.