A US citizen detained in Saudi Arabia was sentenced to 16 years in prison for tweeting critical of the government.

This was reported by the BBC, who learned it from his son. 

Saad Ibrahim Almadi

, who has dual Saudi and American citizenship, was

arrested in November last year upon arriving in Riyadh

from Florida on a trip to see his family.

The son only spoke publicly today about the affair because, according to him, the US authorities had advised him to keep the affair confidential.

According to his son, Saad Ibrahim Almadi - 72 years old - has been

detained in conditions corresponding to torture

since his arrest by the Saudi authorities.

The court that sentenced him

found him guilty of attempting to destabilize the established order and financing terrorism

. 

The only evidence exhibited, according to the BBC, would correspond to 14 tweets.

Among these are some that include criticism of the demolition of the old part of Mecca or Jeddah, as well as tweets of concern about poverty in the Saudi kingdom.

There is also a tweet referencing the barbaric assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The man was also found guilty of not reporting terrorism because he would not report other tweets posted on an account other than his own.