WASHINGTON — A Saudi appeals court has increased the prison sentence of a US citizen for critical tweets from 16 years to 19 years in a “middle finger” to President Biden, the jailed man’s son tells The Post.
The State Department told Ibrahim Almadi about the revised Saudi penalty Wednesday — months after the White House publicly condemned his father, Saad Almadi’s, treatment.
“It’s not a slap in the face, it’s a middle finger,” Ibrahim told The Post, noting that his septuagenarian father has “lost more than 80 pounds” since his arrest in November 2021 on charges linked to more than a dozen tweets mildly critical of the Saudi government.
“When the US asked for an appeal, they said, ‘Here you go, 19 years!’” his son exclaimed.
Saad Almadi, a 72-year-old retired engineer, has lived in the U.S. since the 1970s and is a naturalized American citizen. He was arrested while returning to his homeland to sell family property.
Since being jailed, Almadi has been kept in inhumane conditions without a bed or chair — sometimes housed alongside dangerous suspected terrorists, his son said.