【Text/Observer Network Wang Kaiwen】Saudi American citizen Saad Ibrahim Almadi was arrested in Saudi Arabia last year for "posting tweets criticizing the Saudi government" and sentenced to 16 years in prison for "supporting terrorism."
On October 18th local time, Elmadi's son Ibrahim said in an interview with the New York Post that US officials have hardly helped his father, and some officials even sarcastically said that Eilemadi is a supporter of the Republican Party . Ibrahim criticized that Biden "betrayed my father for oil", "he only cared about votes, not American citizens."
The US State Department confirmed on the 18th that Elmadi was detained in Saudi Arabia, saying that it had raised the matter to the Saudi government and "closely monitored" the developments.
The New York Post and the Washington Post screenshots of the report
According to the Washington Post on the 17th, Ailmadi, 72, is a project manager of the Florida . When he returned to the Riyadh to visit relatives in November last year, he was detained by the Saudi authorities for 14 tweets posted in the past seven years. One of the tweets mentioned the Saudi journalist Khashoggi who was killed in 2018, while the others involved criticizing the Saudi government's policies and corruption issues.
Ailmadi was later charged with "being terrorism ideology , trying to subvert the kingdom, and supporting sponsorship of terrorism".
On October 3, Elmadi was sentenced to 16 years in prison by the Saudi court and obtained an additional 16 years of travel ban. This means that if Ellemadi serves a full sentence, he will be released from prison at the age of 88 and will live until he is 104 to return to the United States.
Ibrahim, son of Elmadi, said in an interview with the Washington Post that his father was not an activist, but was taken away by the Saudi authorities from the airport by just publishing some "moderate views". Ibrahim also said that Almadi was “totorted” in prison, forced to live in a dirty environment, and held with real terrorists, while his family was threatened by the Saudi government.
What disappointed Ibrahim even more was the attitude of the Biden administration. Ellemadi is a U.S. citizen and has lived in the United States since the 1970s. Ibrahim has been asking the U.S. government for help since Elmadi's arrest, but he admitted that U.S. officials have provided little help to them, and even advised him to avoid letting the matter get public attention.
Ibrahim said in an interview with the New York Post on October 18 that since late May, he has called White House almost every day to try to talk to Stephanie Hallett, the acting senior director of the White House National Security Council for Middle East and North Africa . Once, a White House operator asked him directly: "Why do you want to talk to someone you don't want to talk to?"
Ellemadi is a registered Republican in Florida, and his arrest means he can't vote in this year's midterm elections. Ibrahim said that a U.S. State Department official had laughed at him for this, "My father is a Republican registered voter and he wants to participate in the upcoming election. They (officials) smiled and said, your father should apply for a paper ballot." Ibrahim said, "I am a Democrat myself. I voted for Biden, which is a stupid mistake I made."
Ellemadi (left) and Ibrahim Source: New York Post
8 In August, Ibrahim came to Washington and asked the U.S. government to take action on his father's case and identify him as a "misunderstood" American citizen. This will increase the level of the case and transfer the case from the State Department's Consular Affairs Bureau to the Office of the Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs (SPEHA).
However, Ibrahim has been told that his father's case is under consideration. On the day the verdict of the Elmadi case was announced on October 3, no one even appeared in court at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh. Ibrahim said he had notified the U.S. State Department of attendance, but the latter said "we forgot to notify the embassy."
The Washington Post asked the US State Department for confirmation of the matter, and a senior official responded: "Unfortunately, this information has not been passed on (to the embassy). We deeply regret this." The official said that the Biden administration has raised the situation of Ellemadi to the top leaders of the Saudi government, but whether Ellemadi is "misunderstood".
On October 18, local time, Vedant Patel, chief deputy spokesman of the US State Department, confirmed the news that Elmadi was arrested and sentenced. He explained that the US had sent a request to the Saudi government to participate in the trial, but the trial date was advanced. When the US received a reply from the Saudi government, the date had been missed.
Patel said that the first time U.S. officials mentioned to the Saudi government that Ellemadi was arrested was in December last year, and the US embassy last contacted Ellemadi in early August, and had visited him in March this year. Patel said that the US State Department once again raised relevant issues to the Saudi government on October 17 and will continue to pay close attention to the progress of the incident.
In recent years, the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia has taken a sharp turn for the worse due to the murder of Khashoggi. Biden once posed as a "human rights defender" during the 2020 presidential campaign, claiming to turn Saudi Arabia into a "de facto pariah." But under the sharp inflation caused by the energy crisis , the Biden administration had to change its "hard" attitude and rebuild relations with Saudi Arabia, one of the world's largest oil producers.
In July this year, Biden started his first trip to the Middle East during his tenure, actively extended his fist to the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who came to greet him, and did not mention a single word about the murder of Khashoggi in public. But Biden defended himself after the meeting that he "brightly" brought up the murder of journalist Khashoggi while holding a closed-door meeting with Salman .
On July 15, Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman fisted. Source: Pengpai Image
A series of "good-giving" actions were replaced by OPEC+, where Saudi Arabia is located, announced a "major production cut plan." American politics generally regards it as a "back stab" of Saudi Arabia, and is very dissatisfied with this.
It is worth mentioning that "" Wall Street Journal quoted information last week that before the announcement of the OPEC+ decision, White House officials tried to persuade Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing countries to postpone production cuts by one month to reduce the impact on the US midterm elections, but was rejected by Saudi Arabia.
"He (Biden) betrayed my father for oil, which is obvious to us. Especially last week when we saw news about how they asked for the decision to postpone the decision to OPEC (oil cut) for a month (until after the election)." Ibrahim told the New York Post on the 18th.
"Biden only cares about the votes, he doesn't care about my father, nor about American citizens. He (father) was betrayed in exchange for oil, but they (Biden administration) did not receive oil." Ibrahim said: "No father, no oil. Nothing, only shame left. This is what the White House is getting now."
This article is an exclusive article by Observer.com and may not be reproduced without authorization.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-