WASHINGTON: A California man behind an anti-Islam film that has sparked violent protests across the Muslim world has been jailed without bail by a US court for violating terms of his probation on a bank fraud conviction.
55-year-old Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the producer of the controversial movie, was arrested by the California police yesterday and soon produced before a court in Los Angeles.
“He engaged in a likely pattern of deception both to his probation officers and the court,” Judge Suzanne Segal said in her ruling, adding that he was a flight risk.
Flight risk is a factor considered by US courts in deciding whether to grant bond to defendants who might leave the country to avoid punishment.
Nakoula, who according to federal investigators, has changed his name several times, under the terms of probation, was banned from using computers and the Internet without supervision.
According to his attorney Steve Seiden, Nakoula has maintained contacts in person and by phone with probation officers and argued that the movie maker would not be safe in the jail fearing that the anti-Islam film would make him a target of fellow inmates.
However, US Attorney Robert Dugdale argued that Nakoula had engaged in a “pattern of deception” and is a person who cannot be trusted.
“He poses a flight risk and poses a danger to others,” Dugdale said.
Nakoula was earlier arrested in 2009 on charges of being 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.
He was released in June 2011.
Earlier this month he was interviewed by federal authorities after his film sparked widespread protests in the Middle East and North African countries. -PTI
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