Walid Fitaihi

Walid Fitaihi (born 24 September 1964) is a Saudi-American physician and a motivational speaker on Saudi television. In November 2017, a decade after returning from study and work in the United States, and released only in August 2019.

Early life and career Walid Fitaihi was born on 24 September 1964 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He also holds United States citizenship. Massachusetts state records shows he had registered to vote when he was living in Cambridge. He took his undergraduate and medical degrees from George Washington University and a master's in public health from Harvard University. He attracted nearly two million followers on his social media. Also, the daily report said, the Saudi government had tortured him with electrical shocking for a 1-hour session.

Reactions Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi tweeted about Fitaihi before his assassination: "What has happened to us? How can someone like Dr. Walid [Fitaihi] be arrested and what are the justifications for it? Of course, everyone is in a state of confusion and helplessness, there is no one you can go to, no public prosecutor has questioned. God help us."

US National Security Advisor John Bolton, when asked about Fitaihi's case during an interview on CNN's "State of the Union", said that "he knew only that American diplomats had recently met with him in prison. Beyond that, we don't really have any additional information at this point." In response to an Associated Press query, the State Department released a statement confirmed that U.S. diplomatic representatives had met with Fitaihi and had "raised his case" with the Saudi government.

Andrew Miller, deputy director for policy at the Project on Middle East Democracy, said in regards to Fitaihi's imprisonment: "Trump is willing to sell or forsake any person, regardless of whether they are an American resident or an American citizen, in the furtherance of narrow economic interests."