LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A California man linked to an anti-Islam film that sparked violent protests across the Muslim world was taken in for questioning yesterday by authorities investigating possible violations of his probation for a bank fraud conviction.
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, voluntarily left his home in the early hours of yesterday morning for a meeting at a sheriff’s station in the Los Angeles suburb of Cerritos, said Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
“He will be interviewed by federal probation officers,” Whitmore said, adding that Nakoula had not been arrested but would not be returning home immediately. “He was never put in handcuffs … It was all voluntary.”
Nakoula was ushered out of his home and into a waiting car by sheriff’s deputies, his face shielded by a scarf, hat and sunglasses. He has denied involvement in the incendiary low-budget film in a phone call to his Coptic Christian bishop.
The crudely made 13-minute English-language movie, filmed in California and circulated on the Internet under several titles including “Innocence of Muslims,” mocks the Prophet Mohammad and portrays him as a buffoon.
The film helped generate a violent protest at the US consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi during which the US ambassador and three other Americans were killed on Tuesday. US officials said they believe militants used the protest as cover to carry out an armed assault on the diplomatic compound and a building that was supposed to be a safe house.
Protests have spread to other countries across the Muslim world. For many Muslims, any depiction of the prophet is blasphemous. Caricatures deemed insulting in the past have provoked protests and drawn condemnations from officials, preachers, ordinary Muslims and many Christians.
US officials have said authorities were not investigating the film project itself, and that even if it was inflammatory or led to violence, simply producing it cannot be considered a crime in the United States, which has strong free speech laws.
An attorney for Nakoula did not return phone calls and a representative for the US Probation Office had no immediate comment on Nakoula’s questioning by officers.
Nakoula, whose name has been widely linked to the film in media reports, pleaded guilty to bank fraud in 2010 and was sentenced to 21 months in prison, to be followed by five years on supervised probation, court documents showed.
He was accused of fraudulently opening bank and credit card accounts using Social Security numbers that did not match the names on the applications, a criminal complaint showed. He was released in June 2011 and the film was produced later that summer.
The terms of Nakoula’s release restrict him from accessing the Internet or assuming aliases without the approval of his probation officer.
A senior law enforcement official in Washington has indicated the probation investigation relates to whether Nakoula broke one or both of these conditions.
A source with knowledge of the case has said the probation office was looking specifically into Nakoula’s possible involvement in making the YouTube film in violation of the terms of his release.
Any probation violation could result in him being sent back to prison, court records showed.
Clips of the film posted on the Internet since July have been attributed to a man by the name of Sam Bacile, which two people linked to the film have said was likely an alias.
A telephone number said to belong to Bacile was given to Reuters by US-based Coptic Christian activist Morris Sadek who said he had promoted the film. That phone number was traced back to a person who shares the Nakoula residence.
Scenes said shot at Nakoula home
A crew member on the film said in an interview with Reuters that he was there when scenes were shot at Nakoula’s house in Cerritos. The man, who did not want his name used due to concerns about his safety, said he was told at the time that it was the home of the producer, Sam Bacile.
In film clips circulating on YouTube, distinctive front doors shown from the inside in one scene were nearly indistinguishable from the front doors of Nakoula’s house as seen from the outside. Both have frosted glass, semi-circular cut-outs with stenciled rose designs in the wood double-door entrance.
