(CNN) – The White House confirmed Wednesday that it is “closely following” the case of US citizen Saad Ibrahim Al-Madhi, 72, jailed in Saudi Arabia after being sentenced to 16 years in prison for tweets criticizing the Saudi government.
White House spokesperson Karen-Jean-Pierre said at a press conference: “We can confirm that Mr. Al-Madhi will be held in Saudi Arabia and we are following his case closely. We have consistently raised our concerns. and extensive about this issue at the highest levels of the Saudi government, and we will continue to do so. “
In response to a question about Madi’s son’s claims that his father was tortured and accused the US State Department of mishandling the case, he added: “The Saudi government understands the priority we place on resolving this problem. . The exercise of freedom of expression should never be criminalized. “
Saad Ibrahim’s son Al-Mady was reported to have stressed that his father “is not an opponent” and is not close to becoming one.
“My father is an American citizen who wants to live freely and happily in the United States, where he was raised,” Ibrahim Al-Mady told CNN host Erin Brent.
He added: “The media would have circulated his father’s name a lot more if he was arrested in Iran or Russia,” and continued: “We would have seen his name on the headlines every day,” he said.
“We have consistently and extensively raised our concerns about the matter at the highest levels of the Saudi government, both through channels in Riyadh and Washington,” State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vidant Patel said in a briefing on the case of Al- But say.
Patel also confirmed that there was no Foreign Ministry official at the sentencing hearing against Saad Al-Madhi, because the Saudi government postponed the date of the hearing without informing the US embassy and never responded to the request. of the embassy to attend the hearing weeks before its original date, he said.
He added that the US State Department is still considering whether to classify the past as “unfairly detained” and added: “The exercise of freedom of expression should never be criminalized.”
Patel also said that the last time the US was able to access Saad al-Madhi was on August 10, noting that “in many cases we have difficulty accessing dual nationals detained in Saudi Arabia,” but we are doing everything we can to lobby for assistance as we have done here too. “
