CAIRO — A prominent Egyptian satirist has been fined millions of dollars over a dispute with a television channel which suspended his show after it lampooned military leaders, officials said Tuesday.

Bassem Youssef, often compared to U.S. satirist Jon Stewart, moved al-Bernameg (The Program) to Saudi-owned channel MBC last year after it was pulled by the private Egyptian broadcaster CBC.

The Cairo Regional Center for International Commercial Arbitration fined Youssef and his company, Q-Soft, 50 million Egyptian pounds ($6.5 million) each for “CBC’s financial and literary losses,” CBC owner Mohammed al-Amin told AFP.

The arbitration body said the weekly show was not “purposeful and constructive” but a platform for “smearing the country’s political direction.”

If Youssef’s company fails to pay its part of the fine, he might face jail time.

CBC suspended al-Bernameg in November 2013 after an episode in which the satirist poked fun at military leaders including then — army chief, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

The private channel said at the time that Youssef had “violated the editorial policies” of the channel.

The doctor-turned-satirist plans to appeal the arbitration body’s ruling, the al-Bernameg source said.

“I have been forced into a commercial arbitration conflict, that I am not part of, regarding CBC’s suspension of the show,” Youssef wrote on Twitter, adding that “the timing of the verdict is very questionable.”

In February, he began airing the show on Dubai-based MBC but suspended it in June because of what he described as “enormous” pressure.