A federal judge has ordered the man behind an anti-Islamic video that inflamed parts of the Middle East to be detained because he is a flight risk. U.S. Central District Chief Magistrate Judge Suzanne Segal ordered Nakoula Basseley Nakoula held after authorities said he violated terms of his probation. Click below to find out more.
Protests have erupted around the Middle East over a 14-minute trailer for the film “Innocence of Muslims” that depicts Muhammad as a womanizer, religious fraud and child molester.
Nakoula, 55, has been on probation for a 2010 federal check fraud conviction that brought a 21-month prison sentence. Under terms of his probation, he was not to use computers or the Internet for five years without approval from his probation officer.
Nakoula was taken into custody Thursday, said U.S. Attorney’s spokesman Thomas Mrozek.
Though the trailer for “Innocence of Muslims” was posted to YouTube in July, the violence didn’t break out until Sept. 11 and has spread since. Nakoula, a Christian originally from Egypt, went into hiding after he was identified as the man behind the trailer.
The full story about Nakoula and the film still isn’t known.
The movie was made last year by a man who called himself Sam Bacile. After the violence erupted, a man who identified himself as Bacile called media outlets including The Associated Press, took credit for the film and said it was meant to portray the truth about Muhammad and Islam, which he called a cancer.
