Nakoula Basseley
Nakoula, 55, is believed to be linked to an anti-Islam film which sparked a
torrent of anti-American unrest in Muslim countries over the past two weeks.
(Reuters)
| by Dan
Whitcomb
Reuters
( September 28,
2012, Los Angeles, Sri Lanka Guardian) An Egyptian-American man behind an
anti-Islam film that has stoked violent protests across the Muslim world was
arrested on Thursday in California for allegedly violating his probation, and a
federal judge ordered him jailed without bond.
Nakoula Basseley
Nakoula, 55, was taken into custody at an undisclosed location by U.S. marshals
and brought to court in Los Angeles still wearing his street clothes but
handcuffed and shackled at the waist.
Nakoula has been
under investigation by probation officials looking into whether he violated the
terms of his 2011 release from prison on a bank fraud conviction while making
the film, though authorities have said they were not probing the movie itself.
“The court has a
lack of trust in the defendant at this time,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Suzanne
Segal said in refusing Nakoula’s request for bail at a hearing in U.S. District
Court.
His crudely made
13-minute video was filmed in California and circulated online under several
titles including “Innocence of Muslims.” It mocks the Prophet Mohammed.
The clip sparked
a torrent of anti-American unrest in Egypt, Libya and dozens of other Muslim
countries over the past two weeks. The violence coincided with an attack on
U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including
the U.S. ambassador to Libya.
Nakoula, under
the terms of his release from jail, has been barred from accessing the Internet
or using aliases without the permission of a probation officer, court records
show. He now faces eight probation violation accusations.
In denying his
request for bail, Segal called him a flight risk and said the Coptic Christian
filmmaker who most recently lived in the Los Angeles suburb of Cerritos had
“engaged in a lengthy pattern of deception,” including using several aliases.
Defense says
jail dangerous for Nakoula
Nakoula has
stayed out of the public eye for much of the past two weeks, amid outrage over
the film. Last week, Pakistani Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour offered
$100,000 to anyone who kills the maker of the video.
The Pakistani
prime minister’s office later distanced itself from that statement.
A lawyer for
Nakoula expressed concern in court on Thursday for his client’s safety and
asked that the hearing be closed to the media.
Reporters were
not allowed into the hearing but watched from a specially arranged viewing room
a block away, and the judge ordered that a camera filming the proceedings for
closed-circuit viewing not show Nakoula’s face.
Defense attorney
Steve Seiden, in asking for Nakoula’s release on $10,000 bond, argued
unsuccessfully that he had stayed in touch with probation officials even while
in hiding.
“It’s a danger
for him to be in custody at Metropolitan Detention Center due to the large
Muslim population there,” Seiden said, referring to the federal jail in
downtown Los Angeles where Nakoula would likely be housed.
But prosecutors
said Nakoula, who could be sent back to prison for up to two years if he is
found to have violated the terms of his release, had been dishonest with the
court, even about his name.
“Most
specifically, he did not accurately present himself as who he was to the people
he cast in the film,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Dugdale, adding that
in his view Nakoula would be safer behind bars.
The probation
issues were the latest of Nakoula’s legal woes. On Wednesday, an actress who
says she was duped into appearing in the film sued Nakoula, who she identified
as the producer. Cindy Lee Garcia also named YouTube and its parent company
Google Inc as defendants in the case.
Google has
refused to remove the film from YouTube, despite pressure from the White House
and others to take it down, though the company has blocked the trailer in
Egypt, Libya and other Muslim countries.
