WASHINGTON — A graduate student at Boston’s Northeastern University, Prince Abdullah bin Faisal al Saud seldom mentioned he was a member of Saudi Arabia’s sprawling royal family, friends say. He avoided talking about Saudi politics, focusing on his studies, career plans and love of soccer.
But in the same month that Prince Abdullah’s sentence was lengthened, Saudi Arabia gave a 72-year-old Saudi-American, Saad al Madi, a virtual life sentence for tweets he had posted from his home in Florida. Al Madi was unexpectedly accused and imprisoned on a visit home to the kingdom. In sentencing al Madi, the kingdom split from a longstanding Saudi practice of sparing citizens of the U.S., its longtime military protector, from the worst of punishments.
Saudi rights advocates say the imprisonments validate their pre-trip warnings: Biden’s attempts to soothe the crown prince have only emboldened him. “It’s disturbing, it’s terrifying, and it’s a major violation of protected speech,” Freedom House’s Nate Schenkkan said of the recent imprisonments of Western-based Saudis.
Friends say Saudi officials took Prince Abdullah into custody after he returned in 2020, on a government-provided ticket, to study remotely during the pandemic. Saudi court documents allege Prince Abdullah used a Signal app on his mobile phone in Boston to speak to his mother and other relatives about the cousin imprisoned by Prince Mohammed, and had used a public phone in Boston to speak to a lawyer about the case. They say Prince Abdullah acknowledged sending about 9,000 euros to pay bills at his cousin’s apartment in Paris.
Saudi documents and anecdotal accounts from Saudi exiles depict years of Saudi government employees and student informants tracking perceived subversion by students in the U.S. Federal authorities under Biden have taken some steps regarding transnational repression. That includes stepped-up monitoring and a warning delivered to embassies in Washington.