U.S. citizen Saad Almadi freed by Saudi Arabia after being held for critical tweets
An American retiree detained in Saudi Arabia for critical tweets was released months ahead of schedule, his son said, a day after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman appeared alongside President Donald Trump at the White House.
“Our family is delighted that after four long years, our father, Saad Almadi, is finally on his way home,” his family said in a statement released by his son Ibrahim on X on Wednesday.
Authorities in Riyadh imprisoned and then banned Saad Almadi, 75, from leaving the country two years ago, lowering his previous sentence of 19 years, handed down in 2021.
Ibrahim told CNN that his father, originally from Boca Raton, Florida, was arriving in Philadelphia on Thursday, blaming his release on the Trump administration.
“This day would not have been possible without President Donald Trump and the tireless efforts of his administration,” the family said in a statement, also thanking Trump official Sebastian Gorka.
“No American left behind. That’s President @realDonaldTrump’s promise from day one. @WhiteHouse,” Gorka said, reposting his family’s statement.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump has touted his deal-making abilities, having freed several Americans imprisoned in other countries, including six Americans from Venezuela and others from Russia, Afghanistan and Belarus.
Almadi’s release comes as Trump strengthens U.S. ties with Saudi Arabia, a once deeply conservative and oil-dependent theocracy that the 40-year-old crown prince is trying to transform into a modern, more moderate world power.
Trump was attending a Saudi investment conference in Washington when news of Almadi’s release broke.
Almadi, a retired project manager who immigrated to the United States in the 1970s, had written more than a dozen tweets critical of the government in Riyadh.
He was arrested in November 2021 during a visit to Saudi Arabia for a medical procedure and sentenced to prison on terrorism-related charges.
The kingdom released him after more than a year in prison, dropped charges against him for “cybercrimes” and prevented him from leaving the country until next March.
One of the tweets that Saudi authorities confronted Almadi about was about the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, his family said.
His early release comes after Trump defended the crown prince in the killing of Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist, disavowing the findings of his own intelligence agencies and telling reporters in the Oval Office that the crown prince “knew nothing about it.”
The CIA concluded that he ordered the killing.
The crown prince has suppressed domestic criticism, with human rights defenders inside and outside the country warning of unfair trials, arbitrary arrests and executions.
Even though Almadi has been released, hundreds of people remain imprisoned or detained in the kingdom, including journalists, activists, academics and aid workers, human rights groups say.
Crown Prince Mohammed has worked hard to restore his country’s image on the world stage, continuing modernization efforts while wielding the kingdom’s power as the world’s largest oil producer and a growing diplomatic player.
On Tuesday, he made his first visit to the White House since the killing and received an elaborate welcome that included a military flyover and a mounted honor guard. — as well as the rhetorical defense of Trump.
Despite the crown prince’s success in partially modernizing Saudi society and economy, the country of 33 million remains a monarchy where expressing disagreement can be dangerous.
Asked Tuesday about Khashoggi’s killing, the crown prince promised that “we are doing our best to ensure that this does not happen again.”
“It was painful for us in Saudi Arabia,” he said.
