Lebanese comedian grilled over Saudi crown prince burger insult

Sheikh shackles: A Lebanese comedian could face jail time for joking about Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's alleged fast-food addiction, power grab, and bloody war in Yemen.

Narrated

2 min read

Karim Traboulsi

26 Jan, 2018

Burger king: Haddad's line about MbS' 'burger problem' has landed him in trouble [Getty composite]

A Lebanese comedian could face jail time for joking on his TV show about Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's alleged fast-food addiction, power grab, and bloody war in Yemen.

Hicham Haddad should be prosecuted over a segment in his late night show Lahon W Bass (Enough is Enough) broadcast on Tuesday, said Ghada Aoun, the public prosecutor for Mount Lebanon.

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During the show, Haddad said: "With all that's happening in the region, we don't want Mohammed bin Salman to eat fewer burgers. His cholesterol is not the issue - we want him to stop crackdowns, arrests and military strikes [on Yemen]."

The quip was an apparent reference to remarks made on New Year's Eve by popular TV psychic Michel Hayek, who had "predicted" doctors would force MbS to go on a diet, in an unsubtle reference to the weight of Saudi Arabia's de-facto king.

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Haddad has defended himself on Twitter, saying the line targeted Michel Hayek rather than MbS.

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Detractors of MbS on social media have invented insulting nicknames highlighting his size, including "stray bear", and some have speculated Saudi Arabia may have put pressure on Lebanon to go after the comedian, although the claim was denied by the country's justice minister on Friday.

The comedian's quip is prosecutable under an article of local libel laws that prohibit insulting the leaders of friendly nations. The law carries a potential jail sentence of two years or a fine of several thousand dollars.

The call for his prosecution has sparked a backlash on social media, after what many activists have called an alarming slide in Lebanon's climate of relative freedoms.

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Lebanon has recently gone on a film-banning spree, and in recent weeks, several journalists have been prosecuted including by a military tribunal in the case of Hanin Ghaddar, a fierce critic of Hizballah.

Lebanon is also in the middle of a major scandal surrounding allegations its security services were behind a global hacking campaign targeting academics, journalists and business leaders.

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