Saudi Arabia on Monday released an American citizen, who was imprisoned for more than a year over his old tweets criticising the kingdom’s crown prince, as reported by the news agency AP. Neither Saudi Arabia nor the United States confirmed the release of Saad al Madi, a resident of Florida. However, according to AP, rumors on the progress of his release are doing the rounds since last week.
According to Madi’s son Ibrahim al Madi, Saad al Madi was at home with family members who live in Riyadh. The officials of Saudi Arabia dropped all charges against Madi, a dual U.S.-Saudi citizen.
However, it was not immediately clear whether the kingdom would lift a travel ban, which was imposed to follow the prison sentence granted to him. Last year, Saudi Arabia sentenced Madi to 16 years in prison, saying his critical tweets about how the kingdom was being governed amounted to terrorist acts against it, as reported by AP.
As US officials worked to get Madi released, and after US President Joe Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia in 2022 in a bid to improve relations with the oil-rich country, a Saudi appealed in court to increase Madi’s sentence in prison to 19 years, AP reported.