RIYADH - Saudi TV creator Abdulaziz Almuzaini, whose animated Netflix show has made waves for breaking social taboos, said he had been convicted by an anti-terrorism court, prompting condemnation from rights advocates. The kingdom’s Specialised Criminal Court, established in 2008 to try suspects accused of terrorism, “issued against me (a sentence of) 13 years, followed by a 13-year travel ban”, Almuzaini said in a video posted online last week that was subsequently deleted. In a second video posted this week, which is still available on social media platform X, Almuzaini filmed himself inside a car, saying: “I am banned from travelling” out of Saudi Arabia.
Saudi officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AFP on Thursday, and there was no word of Almuzaini -- who was not available for comment -- having been incarcerated. Almuzaini is a dual US-Saudi citizen and a State Department spokesperson said Thursday that Washington was monitoring the case. His satirical show “Masameer County”, billed as “a humorous view on a changing Saudi”, debuted on Netflix in 2021.
Episodes tackled topics such as disputes among tribes and Islamic militancy, and even featured oblique references to homosexuality, a potential capital crime in Saudi Arabia. The Wall Street Journal on Thursday reported that court documents in the case referred to online posts by Almuzaini which “ridiculed Arab regimes..
. or voiced support for women’s rights”. Almuzaini s.
