RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The family of 75-year-old American Saad Almadi is hoping that President Trump’s trip to Saudi Arabia will win his freedom — telling The Post that Almadi faces a possible new trial over his criticism of the government on social media.
Almadi, a dual citizen and retired engineer who lived in the US since the 1970s, was detained during a trip in late 2021 and later sentenced to 19 years in prison for tweeting criticisms of the Saudi government from his home in Florida.
He was released from prison in 2023, but was banned from leaving the country.
The prospect of a renewed trial has his family hoping that Trump will be able to use his strong relationship with Saudi leaders, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to bring him home.
“He tried to go to Dubai two months ago [in March] and they said, ‘You are banned from traveling, contact the Ministry of Interior.’ And when he contacted the Ministry of Interior, they told him, ‘Saad, you are still facing a trial and you are still under travel ban for 19 years,’” his son, Ibrahim Almadi, told The Post.
“Basically in court they said the charges are dropped and now they are refusing to let him travel. They said, ‘No, the charges are still there, they aren’t dropped.’ It’s just a miserable court system.”
Trump, who was greeted lavishly when he arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday morning, including with fighter jets escorting Air Force One and then Arabian horses flanking his motorcade, has made a priority of freeing Americans abroad.
On Monday, Trump won the release of dual US-Israeli citizen Edan Alexander from Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip after his emissaries skirted American political norms and held direct talks with the terrorist group.
Also in the Middle East, Trump hostage envoy Adam Boehler persuaded Kuwait to release 23 Americans in March and April, many of them held on drug charges.
Almadi is one of a handful of American dual citizens facing exit bans from Saudi Arabia following a crackdown on online dissent, and his son says he was recently pressured to sign papers renouncing his American citizenship — though it’s unclear if the US government recognizes that action.
The case is believed to center around a set of social media posts that are relatively benign by American political standards, including urging Saudi citizens to seek Lebanese citizenship and faulting the nation’s defense against inbound Houthi rockets.
He also expressed approval of DC officials renaming a street in honor of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist killed in 2018 in the Turkish Consulate in Istanbul in an operation that the US intelligence community believes was ordered by the crown prince.
“Mr. Almadi is a Floridian and Republican like Trump. It is fitting that Almadi returns home on Air Force One,” said Ali al-Ahmed, a Saudi native and now US-based director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs.
“It’s just a matter of [Trump] asking the Saudis and nothing more.”
Ibrahim Almadi said he recently met with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to discuss his father’s case and that Johnson “told me President Trump is the president of deals and he loves to do business with the Saudis and we will win your father back.”
“I agree with Mike Johnson,” he said. “President Trump is a president of deals and agreements. He’s a businessman and has a great relationship with the Saudis. So he can easily secure the release of my father to return back to his kids and grandkids in the States.”
Ibrahim Almadi, who has served as his father’s chief advocate, previously raged against former President Joe Biden for not pressing his father’s case publicly during a 2022 trip in which the then-president unsuccessfully sought Saudi help to lower gas prices before the midterm election.
After that trip, the elder Almadi’s initial 16-year sentence was revised upward to 19 years.
Trump’s presidential campaign said at the time that “President Trump was the most successful president in history in bringing home Americans detained overseas and reuniting them with their families. Contrast that with the failures of Joe Biden who could care less about Americans detained overseas.”
Now, Ibrahim Almadi says the case is a test for the president.
“Trump mentioned we are respected now all over the world,” he said, “but the Saudis are not showing any form of respect since they are keeping [my father] under a 19-year travel ban and facing trial.”
Spokespeople for the White House and the Saudi Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
