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Saudis increase US citizen’s tweet sentence to 19 years in ‘middle finger’ to Biden

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Saudis increase US citizen’s tweet sentence to 19 years in ‘middle finger’ to Biden

By 

Steven Nelson

February 8, 2023 11:04am 

 Updated

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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.