CNN
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The US State Department has confirmed that 72-year-old US citizen Saad Ibrahim Almadi has been detained in Saudi Arabia after being sentenced to 16 years in prison for tweets critical of the Saudi government.
“We have repeatedly and strongly voiced our concerns regarding the incident at the highest levels of the Saudi government, both through channels in Riyadh and Washington, DC, as well as…nearly. this is like yesterday,” State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said at a news conference. .
The imprisoned Almadi is first report by the Washington Post.
Patel also confirmed that no State Department officials attended Almadi’s hearing, which he said was due to the Saudi government rescheduling the hearing without notifying the US embassy and never responding. the embassy’s request to participate in the hearing weeks before the original scheduled. .
Patel said that the State Department was still conducting the process to determine whether Almadi had been designated as “wrongfully detained”.
“The exercise of the right to free speech should never be criminalized,” says Patel.
Patel also said that the last time the US approached the Almadi consulate was on August 10.
The State Department spoke with the Saudi ambassador to Washington on Monday about Almadi’s case, a US official told CNN.
