(The Hill) - Several U.S. comedians are blasting the star-studded Riyadh Comedy Festival over Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses.

The festival, which kicked off on Friday, features prominent stand-up comedians, including Bill Burr, Dave Chappelle and others. But the event has drawn blowback from other comedians and Human Rights Watch, which said this week that Riyadh is using the occasion to “deflect attention from its brutal repression of free speech and other pervasive human rights violations.”

“Participating comedians, to avoid contributing to laundering the Saudi government’s reputation, should use the comedy festival to publicly urge Saudi authorities to free unjustly detained Saudi dissidents, journalists and human rights activists,” Human Rights Watch said in a press release on Tu

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