Islam riot video maker held for fear he will flee

The man behind the anti-Islamic video that sparked violent protests across the Muslim world is today being held in custody in the US after a judge ruled he could try to flee the country.

Officials claimed Nakoula Basseley Nakoula broke conditions of his probation over a cheque fraud conviction in 2010. The legal action is not related to the film on the Prophet Mohammed.

Judge Suzanne Segal said in Los Angeles that Nakoula, 55, should be detained because he has a history of deception and is a flight risk.

He is accused of eight probation breaches, including lying to officers and using aliases. He may also face new charges that carry a maximum two-year prison term, said authorities.

After his fraud conviction Nakoula was sentenced to 21 months in prison and was barred from using computers or the internet for five years without approval from his probation officer.

Assistant US attorney Robert Dugdale told the court there was a risk that Nakoula, who had been on supervised release, would flee — partly because of the uproar over the film.

“He has every incentive to disappear,” said Mr Dugdale. Nakoula was handcuffed and shackled in court.

Protests erupted around the world over a crudely-produced 14-minute trailer posted on YouTube for Innocence Of Muslims, which depicts the Prophet Mohammed as a womaniser, religious fraud and child molester.

Although the trailer was posted to YouTube in July, the violence did not break out until September 11 and has spread since, killing dozens. Nakoula, a Christian originally from Egypt, went into hiding after he was identified as the man behind the trailer.

US law professor Lawrence Rosenthal, said it was “highly unusual” for a judge to order detention for a probation violation for a non-violent crime.

The trailer is still on YouTube. Parent company Google refused a US government request to take down the video, saying it did not violate the firm’s content standards.

A number of actors on the video claim they were tricked. They say they were hired for a film called Desert Warrior and there was no mention of Islam or Mohammed in the original script.