BEIRUT -- Five months after Saudi Arabia released a doctor with dual Saudi American citizenship from jail, he and seven family members remain barred from leaving the kingdom while he stands trial on charges the United States contends are meritless, a son and a senior State Department official said.Saudi
BEIRUT — Five months after Saudi Arabia released a doctor with dual Saudi American citizenship from jail, he and seven family members remain barred from leaving the kingdom while he stands trial on charges the United States contends are meritless, a son and a senior State Department official said.
But not all cases appear to receive the same attention. Trump has taken pride in getting Americans released from countries such as Yemen, Turkey, Egypt and North Korea. Last month, he celebrated the release of Xiyue Wang, an American graduate student who had been imprisoned in Iran since 2016. Trump has not publicly spoken of them, either — perhaps to avoid causing tension with Saudi Arabia and its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom Trump sees as a key partner in the Middle East.
He was arrested in November 2017 during a sweep of arrests that Saudi officials described as an anti-corruption campaign. But while most of the hundreds of princes, former officials and businessmen who were arrested then and locked in the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton were released within a few months, Fitaihi was transferred to prison and held for 21 months before he was released pending trial last July.
“We do not believe there is merit to the case,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity under diplomatic protocols. He said the Saudis had presented no information that would justify Fitaihi’s incarceration or the travel ban facing him and other members of his family, which the official described as “sort of collective punishment.”
But after their father’s arrest, security officers came to their home and seized their passports, barring them from leaving the kingdom and putting their lives on hold. Their father’s assets were also frozen, Ahmad Fitaihi said, further limiting their options.
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