US grants Saudi dissident political asylum

The United States has granted political asylum to Saudi dissident, Abdulrahman Almutairi, after discovering that the Saudi embassy had attempted to return him to the kingdom following his criticism of Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The paper quoted Almutairi as saying that he was a student at the University of San Diego in 2018, when his father and an “unknown” Saudi person were intercepted at the Los Angeles International Airport by the US authorities and were sent back to the kingdom.

Investigators at the FBI had informed Al-Mutairi of airport incident and told him that they were investigating the issue.

Akram Abusharar, an immigration attorney in Orange County, said he had presented Almutairi’s case to the Political Asylum Office in Los Angeles, which concluded that the 27-year-old “could be killed, tortured and possibly disappear” if forced to return to the kingdom.

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