Alleged anti-Muslim filmmaker detained
The alleged filmmaker behind the video that sparked protests across
Muslim countries was arrested and detained without bond Thursday, as a
US judge said she feared he would try to flee.
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the alleged director/producer of Innocence
of Muslims, appeared in court in Los Angeles after being arrested for
breaching the terms of his probation for a 2010 banking fraud
conviction.
Prosecutor Robert Dugdale said the 55-year-old had allegedly made
eight breaches, including making false statements to probation officers
and using at least three different names.
Judge Suzanne Segal ruled that Nakoula, who has been hiding since
protests erupted over his film, be detained without bond, saying he was
a flight risk and a danger to the community.
“The court has a lack of trust in this defendant,” she said.
Concerns have been raised for Nakoula’s safety due to the widespread
anger his alleged video has provoked among Muslims, and his
hastily-arranged court appearance was held under tight security in
downtown LA.
The hearing was closed to the public, but journalists and anyone else
interested was allowed to follow proceedings via videoconference from a
separate building.
Nakoula -- allegedly the real identity behind the pseudonym Sam
Bacile, listed as the director of “Innocence of Muslims” -- was briefly
taken into custody earlier this month for questioning by his probation
officer.
He was traced to a home address in Cerritos, south of Los Angeles,
after international protests erupted against the 14-minute trailer video
posted online.
The film depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a thuggish deviant
offended many Muslims, and sparked a wave of anti-American protests that
have cost several lives and saw mobs set US missions, schools and
businesses ablaze.
In February 2009, a federal indictment accused Nakoula and others of
fraudulently obtaining the identities and Social Security numbers of
customers at several Wells Fargo branches in California and withdrawing
$860 from them.
Nakoula’s court appearance came a day after an actress involved in
the video, Cindy Lee Garcia, filed a second lawsuit seeking to force
YouTube and Google to pull the video trailer.
Garcia filed legal action in Los Angeles Superior Court last week,
but a judge rejected it -- and on Wednesday, she filed a new suit
alleging breach of copyright in federal court in Santa Clarita,
California.
The actress says she had believed to have signed up for a film called
“Desert Warrior” set 2,000 years ago, and only realized her lines had
been over-dubbed when the row with Muslim protests erupted this month.
In her initial lawsuit, Garcia alleged she has suffered severe
emotional distress, financial setbacks and the “destruction of her
career and reputation.” But Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Luis Lavin
denied her request for a restraining order to prevent YouTube, a
subsidiary of Google, from continuing to show the film clips.
The English version of the trailer, which has been withdrawn from
YouTube in a number of countries, includes blatantly overdubbed parts of
dialogue, and Mohammed’s name seems to have been added in
post-production.
Garcia said she only saw four pages of script for the two days she
spent on set, and had no idea about the movie’s religious content. “No
one spoke of the Muslim faith, no one spoke of Mohammed. Nor would I do
that,” she said.
AFP |