Renowned comedian and member of the Senario group, Yassin Yahya, has finally opened up about the dark moments he faced during his six-month detention in Saudi Arabia.
Arrested in October last year, he described the experience as profoundly humbling, even recalling having to sleep standing for eight days due to overcrowding in the lockup.
“For the first time in my life, I slept standing because the lockup floor was full.
Eventually, I got to lie down, but it was right in front of the toilet door. People stepped over me every day,” he said.
Yassin was detained for 10 days at a Jeddah police station before being transferred to the Foreign Nationals Administration and Deportation Centre on November 5, 2023.
He received a call from the Malaysian Consulate on the first day of the transfer, and for the first time, he was able to send a voice message to his wife.
“Alhamdulillah, I got to speak with my wife, even though the line kept cutting off,” he shared on the podcast Darkcast – Yassin Yahya: Guilty or ??? with Saiful Apek.
On November 19, Yassin underwent an online trial and was sentenced to six months in prison.
“I pleaded guilty to bringing an item with a prohibited symbol.
Maybe I overlooked it, but I see this as a calamity and a lesson in my life,” he said.
Recalling the beginning of the ordeal, Yassin explained that he had accepted a sponsored umrah trip with 24 other artists, organized by an individual from Penang.
Caught up in the excitement, he didn’t have time to attend an umrah course and only learned through YouTube in a short period.
“I thought this was the opportunity I’d been waiting for, so I chose umrah and turned down work offers at the time,” he clarified.
However, everything changed when he was detained at Jeddah Airport after customs officers found a grinder with a prohibited symbol in his bag.
He said he also brought rolling papers and regular cigarettes, worried he wouldn’t be able to smoke while there.
“When customs scanned my bag, they found the grinder I bought. They immediately searched it and took me to the police station,” he claimed.
Yassin was then taken to a special lockup for drug-related cases, despite insisting he wasn’t involved in any drug abuse.
“I told them to do a urine test. But I wasn’t given a chance to explain anything.
Language was a barrier. I just surrendered to Allah at that time.”
After six months in the detention center, Yassin was finally released and returned to Malaysia last week.
He now urges the public to be more cautious when traveling abroad, especially to the Holy Land. – BOOM!
