- Sebastian Asher
- BBC Arabic affairs editor
Ibrahim Al-Madhi said that his father was arrested when he arrived in Saudi Arabia
A Saudi court has sentenced Saad Ibrahim Al-Madhi, who holds dual Saudi and American citizenship, to 16 years in prison for posting tweets on Twitter, his son told the BBC.
Saad Ibrahim Al-Mady was arrested in November when he traveled from Florida to Riyadh to visit his family.
The son spoke for the first time on the subject, defying American advice not to talk about it.
The son, Ibrahim, said he did not want to witness his father’s death in prison, and claimed that his father had been held in torture-like conditions since his arrest by Saudi authorities.
The Saudi court indicted him for attempting to destabilize the kingdom and supporting terrorism.
Ibrahim said the only evidence presented to the court was 14 tweets.
The tweets seen by the BBC include criticism of the demolition of parts of the old neighborhoods in Jeddah and Mecca, concern over poverty in the kingdom, and a reference to the murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Saad was also convicted of not reporting terrorism due to tweets Ibrahim posted on another Twitter account, his son reported.
Prosecutors asked for a 42-year prison sentence, the son said, then a 16-year sentence and a travel ban for another 16 years.
Although Ibrahim has not been able to speak to his father since his arrest, other family members said they were able to visit him and that he told them he was fine.
Ibrahim told the BBC he doubted this was true.
photo released, Ibrahim Almadi
Saad Al-Madhi resides in Florida, USA
He criticized what he sees as the lack of interest in his father’s case from the US government. He added that US officials met his father only twice in Saudi Arabia during his detention, and the first time was after six months of his detention.
Ibrahim claimed that his efforts to contact the White House about the case had been hampered.
He revealed his father’s case to the BBC when US President Joe Biden traveled to Saudi Arabia in July.
Ibrahim did not talk about his father’s case at the time, but now he decided to speak publicly.
He told the BBC he believed there was a double standard with regard to Saudi Arabia, where the US would have acted more seriously if the detainee was in Russia or Iran. “But if you are imprisoned in Saudi Arabia, a barrel of oil is more valuable than you, my love.”
A US State Department source told the BBC when asked about the issue during Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia that there was nothing more important than protecting US citizens, but he could not comment now.
A senior US State Department official told the Washington Post that the Biden administration had raised Saad’s case with the Saudi government at high levels, but Ibrahim accused US officials of not showing any sympathy for his father.
Ali Al-Shihabi, a Saudi commentator and advisor to the government, said the kingdom is going through a difficult transition at a time when it is undergoing change in a highly polarized society.
“This is a process that may produce wrong steps, but it must be balanced with the authorities’ legitimate concern about a societal rift,” he added.
photo released, Archyde.com
Ibrahim criticizes the US authorities and says they did not help his father
The ruling against Saad is the last in a series of penalties recently issued by Saudi courts against people because of what they posted on social media.
Another case is the case of Noura Al-Qahtani, a mother of five, who was sentenced to 45 years in prison for “using the Internet to tear the social fabric”, for the background of anonymous tweets she posted on Twitter.
Salma Al-Shehab, a mother of two studying at the University of Leeds, was arrested while she was on vacation in Saudi Arabia, on charges of providing aid to people seeking to undermine public order and spreading false rumors, and other charges.
Al-Shehab was initially sentenced to six years in prison, and then after an appeal, the sentence was raised to 34 years.
Ibrahim said that there is a possibility to appeal the verdict against his father, but Al-Shehab’s condition makes him fearful of the outcome.
“Things could get worse,” he added.