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The
filmmaker reported to be behind the Islamophobic video that sparked anti-US
protests the world over has been arrested and jailed for violating the terms of
his probation.
Federal
Judge Suzanne H. Segal ruled that the California man, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula,
should be jailed after a federal prosecutor said he had eight probation
violations, including lying to his probation officers and using aliases.
"The
court has a lack of trust in the defendant,” Judge Segal said, ordering Nakoula
to be handcuffed and shackled in court.
He
“has every incentive to disappear,” Assistant US Attorney Robert Dugdale added,
noting that the filmmaker has a “lengthy pattern of deception.”
Nakoula,
was arrested earlier in the day and brought before a Los Angeles court over the
probation violation. The US District Court hearing was closed both to media and
the public.
He
was arrested after federal probation officials determined he violated the terms
of his supervised release, and filed a request to revoke it, said Thom Mrozek
of the United States Attorney's Office in Los Angeles.
Probation
officers who suspected that he violated violated the terms of his parole by
uploading a 14-minute trailer of the film to YouTube had opened an
investigation into Nakoula's status, resulting in the arrest.
Nakoula
had also been taken into custody for questioning by his probation officer
earlier in the month.
In
2010, Nakoula, known under at least a dozen aliases including Sam Bacile, was
found guilty of opening bank accounts using stolen identities and Social
Security numbers, and was sentenced to 21 months in prison.
One
condition of his June 2011 release was a ban from accessing the Internet or
using aliases without the permission of a probation officer.
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