The family of an American citizen confirmed to The Associated Press the details from a Washington Post report that the citizen has been arrested, tortured and sentenced to 16 years in prison in Saudi Arabia over tweets he sent while in the United States. According to the son of Saad Ibrahim Almadi, a 72-year-old retired project manager living in Florida, he was arrested last November while visiting family in the Kingdom. Almadi’s son said Almadi was sentenced last month.

Almadi is a citizen of both Saudi Arabia and the U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel confirmed Almadi’s detention Tuesday.

“We have consistently and intensively raised our concerns regarding the case at senior levels of the Saudi government, both through channels in Riyadh and Washington, D.C. as well and we will continue to do so,” Patel said. “We have raised this with members of the Saudi government as recently as [Monday] and it is something that we are continuing to pay very close attention to.”