Saudis in US targeted as kingdom cracks down on dissent

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Saudi prince who was attending graduate school in Boston is the latest person targeted as part of what the FBI and others say is Saudi Arabia’s crackdown on Saudis in the United States. Saudi court papers obtained by The Associated Press reveal the previously unreported case of Prince Abdullah bin Faisal al Saud. He was handed a 30-year prison sentence for phone conversations that Saudi officials say he had with his mother and others while in Boston. The case follows a 16-year prison sentence given a 72-year-old dual Saudi and American citizen for tweets he posted from his home in Florida. The Saudi Embassy calls allegations that it stalks Saudis on U.S. soil “preposterous.” But Khalid al Jabri, a Saudi living in the U.S., calls it “a repression machine.”