Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, producer of the notorious anti-Islam video, which hurt feelings of Muslims around the world with its posting on the Internet and incited unprecedented protests around the globe, has been ordered jailed without bond by a federal judge in Los Angeles, California.
A report in The Los Angeles Times said Nakoula, 55, who had earlier operated under several fake names, was being held in a federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles late Thursday after a judge ordered him seized on a probation violation.
Meanwhile, ABC News identified Nakoula as a Coptic Christian. According to the channel, Nakoula had originally used the pseudonym Sam Bacile, telling reporters he was an “Israeli Jew” and that the film had cost about $5,000,000, which came from wealthy Jewish friends. “But Nakoula, who is actually an Egyptian-American Coptic Christian, later told authorities that he and his son, Abanob Basseley, 21, were responsible for producing the movie,” the ABC report said. Reporting his detention late Thursday, the Los Angeles Times said Judge Suzanne H. Segal said Nakoula posed “some danger to the community” and had lied to probation officials. “The court has a lack of trust in the defendant at this time,” she said, according to the Times.
The report said Nakoula was arrested earlier in the day. Federal prosecutors argued in a court hearing Thursday afternoon that he posed a flight risk and should remain in custody. His attorney argued that Nakoula be released on bond, saying his client would be in danger at the downtown LA federal prison because it had a large Muslim population. He also denied his client violated his probation. The Times report said Nakoula was convicted on bank fraud charges in 2010 and was warned against misbehaving on the Internet.
He was ordered not to own or use devices with access to the Web without approval from his probation officer -– and any approved computers were to be used for work only. “Defendant shall not access a computer for any other purpose,” according to the terms of his probation. There were also restrictions placed on him in enlisting others to get on the Internet for him. Some speculated that Nakoula may have violated those terms after the film trailer was loaded onto YouTube, although it is unclear what exactly prompted the recent arrest.
Nakoula had been arrested in 2009 after federal agents searched his home in Cerritos on suspicion that he had engaged in a scheme to create fake identities and open credit cards in those names, then draw tens of thousands of dollars from the phony accounts. According to the ABC News reported Nakoula had met with federal probation officers on Sept. 14 about whether his involvement in the film violated the terms of his probation, which barred him from accessing the internet without prior approval and from using any name other than his legal name.