The State Department has indicated little hope of bringing back a Saudi citizen to the United States after he fled before his manslaughter trial in Portland.

The department confirmed an earlier report in The Oregonian/OregonLive that Abdulrahman Sameeer Noorah is in Saudi Arabia and expressed sympathy to the parents of the teenager Noorah is accused of killing in a hit-and-run crash in 2016.

But the letter to U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., didn’t mention whether the State Department plans to undertake diplomatic measures to secure Noorah’s return and seemed to suggest any resolution was outside of its purview.

“The United States and Saudi Arabia do not have a bilateral extradition treaty, and Saudi Arabia does not extradite its nationals to the United States,” wrote Mary Elizabeth Taylor, the department’s assistant secretary of legislative affairs. “Therefore, the law enforcement options available are limited.”

Taylor added: “At this point, the State Department has no concrete, credible evidence as to how Mr. Noorah effected his escape.”

The letter, dated Feb. 14 but released Monday, seems to undercut the accounts of federal law enforcement officials, who told The Oregonian/OregonLive last year they believe the Saudi government help Noorah, then-21-year-old college student, escape prosecution in 2017.

Officials with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Marshals Service allege he left his Southeast Portland neighborhood in a black SUV and later used an illicit passport and private plane — likely provided by the Saudi government — to flee the country in the death of Fallon Smart, 15.

The wealthy Persian Gulf kingdom had previously retained private defense attorneys to work on Noorah’s case and cut a $100,000 check to provide him bail, according to court records and prosecutors. Authorities placed him under on pre-trial supervision and seized his passport.

Since those revelations, The Oregonian/OregonLive has found 16 other cases across the U.S. and Canada where university students from Saudi Arabia have vanished while facing criminal charges — even after some, like Noorah, surrendered their passports to authorities.

State and federal officials, including prosecutors, Homeland Security investigators and the FBI, have confirmed that at least eight of these defendants, including Noorah and two others from Oregon, have returned to Saudi Arabia or left North America.

Wyden, who has sought answers from the Trump administration about the disappearances and introduced legislation punish Saudi Arabia for its suspected role, blasted the State Department’s response.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “is proud to brag about America’s military and economic dominance, but he apparently believes the State Department is powerless to stand up to Saudi Arabia’s long pattern of apparently helping criminal suspects escape U.S. justice,” he said in statement. “That is not good enough for the victims of these violent crimes in Oregon and across the country.”

Chris Larsen, an attorney for Fallon Smart’s family, expressed similar frustration.

“We’re disappointed with the State Department’s apparent unwillingness to use its considerable diplomatic power to work with the Saudi government to return Mr. Noorah to Oregon to face trial for his crimes,” Larsen said.

“While we appreciate Secretary Pompeo’s condolences, what we need is a commitment by this administration to act: to negotiate with the King of Saudi Arabia for the return of Mr. Noorah. We understand that while ‘the law enforcement options are limited,’ the Department of State options are not so limited.”

Read the full State Department below.

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh; 503-294-7632

Read other stories from this series:

He was accused of killing a Portland teen. Feds believe the Saudis helped him escape

Gone: More cases emerge of Saudi students vanishing while facing Oregon charges

Saudi students who vanish before trial span states, decades

Oregon’s Merkley and Wyden seek to punish Saudi Arabia over students who vanished before trial

Oregon’s Wyden prods FBI director for answers about Saudi role in student disappearances

Not just Oregon: Saudi students in at least 8 states, Canada vanish while facing criminal charges

Feds launch investigation into disappearance of Saudi students facing U.S. charges