3 min readNew DelhiFeb 2, 2026 04:47 PM IST
A Saudi-born comedian won a landmark legal case in the UK after a court ruled that Saudi Arabia was responsible for hacking his phone and conducting an assault on him in London.
Ghanem al-Masarir, 45, shot to fame with his satirical videos mocking the Saudi royal family, which garnered millions of views on his YouTube channel, BBC reported. Al-Masarir began noticing unusual activity on his phone in 2018.
His devices slowed down dramatically, and their batteries drained quickly. Around the same time, he felt he was being followed and harassed by individuals he believed were linked to the Saudi regime.
Suspecting surveillance, he later found out from cyber experts that his phone had been infected with Pegasus, a powerful spyware developed by Israeli firm NSO Group. The tool is capable of accessing a target’s location, camera, microphone and personal data, the report added.
“It was something that I couldn’t comprehend. They can see your location. They can turn on the camera. They can turn on the microphone, listen to you. They got your data, all pictures, everything. You feel you’ve been violated,” he told the BBC.
Al-Masarir said his phone was hacked after he clicked on links sent via text messages that appeared to be exclusive membership offers from news organisations. Following this, he claims he was stalked, harassed and eventually assaulted in central London.
According to the report, he was confronted by two men over his video of the Saudi royal family and was further punched in the face. The assailants fled only after passers-by intervened, shouting insults such as “slave of Qatar” and threatening to “teach him a lesson.”
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In another incident in 2019, a child approached him in a cafe in Kensington and sang a song praising Saudi King Salman. The incident was recorded and shared on social media. Later that same day, a man allegedly walked up to him and said, “Your days are numbered,” before leaving.
After six years of legal proceedings, the High Court in London ruled that there was a “compelling basis” to conclude that both the hacking and the assault were “directed or authorised by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or agents acting on its behalf.”
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had a clear interest in and motivation to shut down the claimant’s public criticism of the Saudi government,” the judge said.
The court awarded al-Masarir more than £3 million ($4.1 million) in damages, although it is uncertain whether the sum will be paid. Saudi Arabia stopped engaging with the case after a 2022 ruling determined it could not claim state immunity, the report stated.
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Born in Saudi Arabia, al-Masarir has lived in the UK for more than 20 years and is now a British citizen. Despite the legal win, he shared that the ordeal had a profound personal impact. He avoids travelling to central London and has not uploaded a YouTube video in the past three years.
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