Humaidan Al-Turki is currently serving 28 years in a US prison.
The five-minute film is supported by top Saudi religious, media and sports figures and is the culmination of a campaign supporting Al-Turki on Twitter and Facebook, which has attracted more than 11,000 followers.
They also set up a special website calling on Obama to release Al-Turki.
Renowned Saudi Islamic scholar Sulaiman Al-Oudah introduces the film by appealing to the US president.
He is followed by Saudi Shiite scholar Hassan Al-Saffar, who says releasing Al-Turki would have a positive impact on Saudi people. Shoura Council member Najeeb Al-Zamil said the history of America is based on tolerance, love, justice and forgiveness and called for the release of the prisoner based on these noble values.
The film also contains a presentation based on a report written by Abdullah Al-Almi on the history of presidential pardons in the United States.
Saudi journalist and media personality Turki Al-Dakheel appears in the presentation, reading passages from the last message sent by Al-Turki to his mother, in which he asks her to pray for his release.
“I do not know my father except from pictures, but I cannot imagine the rest of my life without him,” says 12-year-old Ruba, Al-Turki’s youngest daughter, in the film.
She appealed to Obama to pardon her father and said she hoped he would soon be with her again.
The film was the idea of university students Asim Al-Ghamdi and Al-Muhanad Al-Kadam. They said they wanted to influence US public opinion and reach Obama with the hope that he would use his powers to pardon Al-Turki.
They said they received resounding support from various sectors of Saudi society for their not-for-profit project. The film is made in Arabic with English subtitles.
Al-Turki, 36, was sent to America for his higher degree by the department of English at Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh. He had already obtained his master’s degree with an excellent rating in phonetics from University of Colorado at Denver.
He was first arrested with his wife in 2004 on charges of violating residence regulations.
Al-Turki was again detained in 2005 for sexually assaulting his Indonesian maid. In April 2010, the Supreme Court refused a petition from his lawyers, which meant that only the US President himself could revoke the sentence.
