US Citizen Released After Criticizing Saudi Arabia's Rulers

A US citizen of Saudi origin, Saad Ibrahim Almadi, who was sentenced to 19 years in a Saudi prison for social media posts criticising the kingdom’s rulers, has been released. Almadi's son said that his father was arrested in 2021 for "mild" Twitter posts on topics including the war in Yemen and the 2018 killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The case has risked further ratcheting up tensions between Riyadh and Washington, longtime partners that have recently been at odds over issues including human rights and oil output cuts approved by the Opec+ cartel.