Saudi Arabia sentences comedian producer to prison, travel ban over Netflix series

A court in Saudi Arabia has reportedly sentenced a Saudi comedy producer to 13 years imprisonment and a 13 year travel ban on charges of terrorism and promoting discord, in the Kingdom’s latest crackdown on creativity, despite its efforts to promote its entertainment industry.

Abdul Aziz Al-Muzaini, a Saudi writer and producer known for expanding Saudi content to the streaming platform, Netflix, particularly with his popular animated series ‘Masameer’, revealed in a video on X and Youtube that a committee in the Kingdom’s audiovisual commission two years ago imposed charges against him in connection to his Netflix series.

The charges are allegedly based on accusations that his series included the use of foul language such as “you donkey” and sentences such as “may God curse you”, which apparently amount to a crime. Authorities also accuse Al-Muzaini and his company, Myrcott, of supporting terrorism and homosexuality through the series, and even of promoting terrorism by depicting and mocking the Daesh terror group.

The Saudi producer was also reportedly targeted for old tweets he published on the social platform Twitter – now X – between 2010 and 2014, in which he implicitly lamented the lack of space for creativity and entertainment in Saudi Arabia.

In his video, he mentioned that he was questioned by the chairman of the Saudi committee, Saad Al-Suhaimi, who, amongst other matters, questioned why Al-Muzaini partnered with Netflix instead of working with the Saudi network, MBC.

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The producer told Al-Suhaimi that he had already gained permission to distribute the series by ensuring it did not violate any Saudi laws after speaking to the head of the General Authority for Audio-Visual Media.

Al-Suhaimi then reportedly messaged that head, ordering her to stay away from the case. He also warned Al-Muzaini that there are still restrictions on entertainment creativity in the Kingdom, even despite its recent reforms and efforts to open itself up to the industry, telling him “not to think that this is it, that there is entertainment now, there is the Riyadh season”.

Al-Muzaini has since deleted his video, only a few hours after posting it, and has instead made efforts to clear his dispute with Saudi authorities by sharing posts by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, praising the head of the General Entertainment Authority, Turki Al-Sheikh, and insisting that his old tweets were in line with the Kingdom’s current policies and agenda.

According to reports, he confirmed the court’s imposition of a travel ban, but also stressed that “if a spaceship came now and took me, and asked me ‘where do you want us to drop you off'”, he would choose Saudi Arabia.

Despite the charges against him, Al-Muzaini reportedly has not yet been arrested and imprisoned, still living in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, while attempting to appeal the court’s decision. Those efforts have not been successful, so far, and the charges have been upheld in recent months, but a new appeal is reportedly currently in process.

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