From the outside, the last few years look like the peak of Abdulaziz Almuzaini’s career.
As the head of an animation studio in Saudi Arabia, he signed a five-year deal with Netflix in 2020. A sarcastic cartoon franchise he helped create, “Masameer,” likened to a Saudi version of “South Park,” was soon streaming around the world. And as the conservative Islamic kingdom softened, Mr. Almuzaini was publicly celebrated — just months ago — as one of the homegrown talents shaping its nascent entertainment industry.
But behind the scenes, he was being tried in an opaque national security court as Saudi prosecutors – who accused him of promoting extremism through the cartoon series and his social media posts – sought to ensure he would spend the rest of his life in prison or under a travel ban.
Mr. Almuzaini, a Saudi-American citizen and father of three, recently described his predicament in a video calling on Saudi leaders to intervene, saying he was awaiting a final decision from the kingdom’s Supreme Court.
“I could take on the consequences of what happens after this, and I’m ready,” he said in the 18-minute video, which he said he filmed at his home in the Saudi capital.
The video was posted to his social media accounts late last month and deleted the same day. In it, Mr. Almuzaini, sporting a black beard that is graying at the edges, speaks in front of a wall covered in colorful Post-its.
“I have not committed any crime in the kingdom,” he said. “I have not even run a red light.”
Saudi authorities have jailed hundreds of citizens in a crackdown on dissent that began in 2017. Yet Mr. Almuzaini’s video was shocking because he appeared to be squarely in the good graces of Saudi leaders — attending government-organized events and receiving glowing writings state supported mediaDespite the serious charges against him, he was not imprisoned, although he was banned from leaving the country.
His story is the most striking example of the duality of the new Saudi Arabia, as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 38, has declared. open the kingdom socially while deepening political repressionIn Mr Almuzaini’s case, these two tendencies have manifested themselves simultaneously, revealing a deep dissonance at the heart of the kingdom’s transformation.
The New York Times has verified that a trial took place at the Specialized Criminal Court in Riyadh, where Mr. Almuzaini was convicted last year of supporting an extremist ideology, among other charges. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison, followed by a 13-year ban on traveling outside Saudi Arabia. An appeals court upheld his conviction and prison sentence this year, while extending his travel ban to 30 years.
The Saudi government’s International Communications Center did not respond to a request for comment. Mr. Almuzaini did not respond to an interview request. His lawyer could not be reached. Netflix declined to comment.
The US State Department told the Times that it was closely monitoring Mr Almuzaini’s case, adding: “Our embassies and consulates seek to ensure that American citizens abroad undergo a fair and transparent legal process.”
The prosecutors’ charges related to television content produced by Mr. Almuzaini and social media posts he made a decade ago, when space for public discourse in Saudi Arabia was less restricted.
“I never thought it would get to this point,” Almuzaini said in his video. “Especially since there are people and officials – whom I thank but will not name – who assured me that the problem did not deserve all this and that we had to be patient and that it would be resolved through bureaucratic means.”
Since Prince Mohammed came to power in 2015, he has significantly eased social restrictions in Saudi Arabia. End the ban on women drivingby disarming the religious police and investing massively in new sectors such as entertainment and tourismHe also presided over widespread political repression, which reached its peak with the murder of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 — a columnist who wrote critical articles about the monarchy in the Washington Post — by Saudi agents in Istanbul.
Prince Mohammed’s advisers and supporters sometimes argue that an iron fist is needed to steer the state forward in a period of tumultuous change. But Mr. Almuzaini’s case, among others, raises questions about how the kingdom intends to foster art, creativity and entrepreneurship — key elements of the prince’s plans — while curtailing freedom of expression.
“Masameer” debuted on YouTube more than a decade ago, at a time when cinemas were banned and filmmaking was largely underground.
Through deliberately absurd plots, the series – wacky, dark and sometimes steamy – critiques aspects of life in the conservative Islamic kingdom.
In an interview in 2017One of the show’s co-creators, Malik Nejer, said: “We try to poke fun at a lot of social issues, from how government works to how certain beliefs are propagated in society.”
“We even laugh at ourselves sometimes,” he added.
From its early years, “Masameer’s” ideology was socially liberal, with storylines that ridiculed the classism, discrimination against women and religious restrictions that heavily defined life in Saudi Arabia at the time.
During the country’s rapid transformation under Prince Mohammed, the government appeared to support Mr Almuzaini’s work, even as he was on trial at the same time.
Last year, after being convicted and sentenced, he attended a gala Events have been held by state entities where officials have paid tribute to Saudi creators. Since 2021, Riyadh Boulevard, a government-run entertainment complex in the kingdom’s capital, has hosted events and theme park attractions designed around the characters from “Masameer.” And a few months ago, as he continued to appeal the decisions, Mr. Almuzaini was invited onto a Saudi state television show to discuss the kingdom’s film industry.
The episode celebrated the dissemination of Saudi content to international audiences, with a voiceover declaring“We will tell our own stories, ourselves, and export them with our narrative to the world.”
Several TV series and two films from the “Masameer” franchise are still available on Netflix in Saudi Arabia. Mr. Almuzaini’s animation studio, Myrkott, is midway through a five-year partnership with the streaming service, signed in 2020.
According to Mr. Almuzaini’s video, some of the charges he faced were related to an episode of “Masameer County,” a spin-off series hosted by Netflix and airing in 2021.
This episode tells the story of a wealthy, pampered, and lonely man named Bandar who develops a nighttime craving for ice cream. He goes in search of it, but is beaten up, thrown into the desert, and picked up by a band of jihadists. He joins the terrorist group ISIS, and at the end of the episode, the helicopter he is traveling in explodes, catapulting him into a dreamlike scene where he finds a sumptuous ice cream cone.
The episode is openly derogatory toward jihadists, featuring the leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, died in 2019like a shady man with a harem of women.
But Saudi officials who are pursuing Mr. Almuzaini have interpreted the phrase to mean that “if you fight with the Islamic State and you die like Bandar in the ice episode, you will go to heaven,” Mr. Almuzaini said in his video. “I don’t know how they interpret it that way.”
In the video, Mr Almuzaini pleaded for help from Prince Mohammed, saying he had sought to resolve his case through numerous avenues before going public.
Mr. Almuzaini’s troubles began in 2021, when an official at a Saudi media authority began investigating him and his animation studio for regulatory violations that included “supporting terrorism and homosexuality,” Mr. Almuzaini said in the video.
What started as a regulatory issue has escalated into a criminal trial. In addition to complaints about the content of “Masameer,” prosecutors pointed to social media posts Mr. Almuzaini made between 2010 and 2014, he said in the video.
Mr Almuzaini concluded the video by saying he had recently had to close his animation studio and lay off his employees. But he still has faith in the kingdom’s “wise government” and is confident he will get his rights, he added.
After the video was deleted, Mr. Almuzaini appeared to remain free. He continued to post on social mediaincluding Tuesday.
In a second videoIn a message posted on Sunday, Mr Almuzaini stressed his loyalty to the Saudi kingdom and its leaders, adding that he did not want to go anywhere else.
“I will live in this country,” he said. “And if God wills, I will die in this country.”
