Saudi Arabia forced Florida man to renounce U.S. citizenship over critical tweets, family says

WASHINGTON (AP) — Saudi Arabia has jailed a Florida retiree and forced him to renounce his U.S. citizenship for social media posts critical of his crown prince, according to his son.

The 74-year-old retiree Saad Almadi is one of at least four people with dual Saudi-American citizenship who accuse the government of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of forcing them to Give up U.S. citizenship.

The alleged tactics by a key U.S. strategic partner, which have never been reported before, are consistent with similar efforts to silence even moderate criticism, including threats of jail time and exit bans, as was the case to prevent Almadi from returning to the United States. He was released after more than a year in prison.

“There is a Saudi prince coming to the United States for a routine medical examination, why can’t American citizens return home to be healthy?” Ibrahim Almadi said about his father.

“This is all because we don’t want to disturb the feelings of our allies,” he said in an interview in Washington. “If this had been Russia, Iran or North Korea, he would have been declared wrongfully detained months ago.”

The Saudi Embassy in Washington acknowledged receiving a request for comment on the allegations but had no other response. The Saudi Arabian government does not recognize dual citizenship. It often rejects criticism of its actions, saying they are part of a multi-year fight against corruption, terrorism and other security threats.

The plight of Almadi Sr. and others could complicate U.S. efforts to reverse tensions sparked by the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

U.S. President Joe Biden vowed to disparage members of the Saudi royal family during his 2020 campaign after U.S. intelligence officials concluded that the crown prince authorized the killing of a U.S.-based journalist inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The prince denies any involvement.

But after taking office, Biden softened his criticism in the face of lasting damage to Democratic support from soaring oil prices. During a 2022 trip to Saudi Arabia, the president had an awkward fist bump with Prince Mohammed.

Relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States are expected to further heat up under President-elect Donald Trump, whose real estate empire and his family have extensive business dealings with the world’s largest oil exporter.

Almadi, a retired case manager who immigrated to the United States in the 1970s, was arrested in 2021 in Saudi Arabia where he planned to visit family for two weeks. Saudi officials confronted him with tweets he had posted in the United States over the past few years, including one about Khashoggi’s killing and another about the crown prince’s consolidation of power.

Almadi was soon sentenced to more than 19 years in prison on terrorism-related charges stemming from those tweets. Saudi Arabia released him more than a year later but imposed an exit ban preventing him from returning to his home in Boca Raton, near Miami.

In the months after his release, Almadi received threatening phone calls from his son, who claimed the men were agents of the feared intelligence police whose job it was to neutralize threats to the kingdom’s rulers. Then, last November, they summoned Almadi to a villa in Riyadh and promised that the exit ban would be lifted if he renounced his U.S. citizenship, his son said.

Feeling helpless, Almadi signed a document and followed instructions to try to return his U.S. passport to the U.S. embassy, ​​his son said.

Under the law, Americans seeking to renounce their citizenship must go through a lengthy process in which U.S. officials must consider their actions voluntary. The U.S. State Department said that was not the case in Almadi’s case, adding that he remained a U.S. citizen and received consular support.

“The department will continue to promote Mr. Almadi to the Saudi Arabian government and hopes he will soon be reunited with his family in the United States,” an agency spokesman said.

Abdullah Alaoud, senior director of the Center for Middle East Democracy, a Washington-based human rights group, said he was aware of three other dual U.S.-Saudi citizens who were allegedly forced to renounce their U.S. citizenship. He said they were not activists or outspoken critics of the Saudi government.

Aloud said Almadi’s case seemed the most shocking: “They kind of forced themselves on him.”

The group wrote to the Biden administration in December demanding the “immediate and unconditional release” of Americans imprisoned or banned from traveling in Saudi Arabia, U.S. residents and their close relatives, in what activists said was an attempt to silence them .

Those prevented from leaving include Aziza al-Yousef, a U.S. green card holder and retired professor who was jailed in 2018 for peaceful demonstrations and a petition to allow women to drive in Saudi Arabia One of several activists who was later released.

It’s unclear how Trump’s presidency will affect the handling of such cases, but his ties to Saudi Arabia’s leaders run deep.

The Trump Organization last month unveiled plans for a luxury high-rise apartment tower in the coastal city of Jeddah. A private equity firm controlled by Trump’s son-in-law and former White House adviser Jared Kushner received a $2 billion investment from a sovereign wealth fund controlled by the crown prince.

Two weeks after the US election, Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk were spotted sitting next to the wealth fund chief at a UFC event at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Saudi Arabia is the most coveted prize in U.S. efforts to get Arab states to normalize relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords — a signature foreign policy achievement of Trump’s first presidency. — and end the U.S.-allied war against Hamas in Gaza.

Saudi Arabia’s exit ban on Almadi, and China’s similar approach against dual nationals, are less about forcing U.S. foreign policy concessions than arbitrary arrests by adversaries such as Iran, Russia and Venezuela. . But they can damage relationships.

“From a policy perspective, it’s very complex for the United States to take action when it comes to allies,” said Mickey Bergman, CEO of Global Reach, which works to secure the release of Americans imprisoned abroad.

That didn’t matter to Almadi’s son. In March, he emailed several State Department officials, including the consular officer his father met with in Riyadh, complaining that the United States was not taking action to ensure his father’s freedom.

“We cannot continue to wait while the ship sinks,” he wrote in an email provided to The Associated Press.

After spending his fourth New Year apart from his father, he decided to go public.

“Words can’t describe it,” said the younger Almadi, who put his financial career on hold and moved to Washington to defend his father. “I used to focus on improving my life, and I was only 28 years old. But now all I think about is what to do, how to act, what to say and what not to say, to secure my father’s release.”

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Goodman reported from Miami. Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.