US judge jails anti-Islam filmmaker for one year

LOS ANGELES - Agence France-Presse

The man behind the anti-Islam video blamed for sparking widespread protests in the Muslim world was jailed for a year on Nov. 7 for breaching the terms of his probation for a previous offense.

Mark Basseley Youssef will serve the sentence in federal prison after he admitted four allegations of using false identities, violating the terms of his probation for a bank fraud conviction in 2010. The 55-year-old was identified as the main man behind “Innocence of Muslims,” which triggered a wave of protests in September, and was initially blamed for an attack which killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya. In February 2009, a federal indictment accused Youssef 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. He was arrested in September for eight probation violations. At a hearing last month he denied all counts, but on Nov. 7 he admitted to four, in return for the other four being set aside.

 U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder said Youssef, who has already spent five weeks in custody, must spend 12 months behind bars, followed by four years of supervised release. Youssef was previously listed as Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, and known as Sam Bacile when the protests about the video emerged.