Washington (CNN) A dual US-Saudi citizen being held in Saudi Arabia, Dr. Walid Fitaihi, reportedly has been beaten, tortured and jailed, a source familiar with the situation tells CNN, confirming the belief by the doctor's family.

The US State Department confirmed Fitaihi's detainment in Saudi Arabia and that it has raised Fitaihi's case with the Saudi government.

Fitaihi is a physician who came to the US in the 1980s for school and then worked here.

He went back to Saudi Arabia in 2006 to start a hospital, which his family built. He would periodically come back to the US for business. He was detained in November 2017 at the Ritz Carlton hotel along with other prominent Saudis, his lawyer says.

"Thereafter, without explanation, he was transferred to a Saudi prison where he has been held for nearly a year during which he has been permitted little contact with the outside world," according to a letter from his attorney Howard Cooper to the State Department in January asking for its help.

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