A US "film-maker" linked to an anti-Islamic movie that has sparked deadly riots across the Middle East, claiming the lives of the US ambassador toLibya as well as a number of others, has been questioned by federal probation officers in Los Angeles.
As violence in cities across the Muslim world appeared to be dying down, convicted fraudster Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, was interviewed over suspected breaches of his parole conditions relating to his use of computers.
Federal authorities have identified Nakoula, a self-described Coptic Christian, as the key figure behind Innocence of Muslims, a film denigrating Islam and the Prophet Muhammad that has ignited mob violence against US embassies across the Middle East.
Yesterday the same video was also linked by a Taliban spokesman to its attempted attack on Camp Bastion in Afghanistan, home base of Prince Harry, during which two US Marines and 18 militants were killed.
A federal law enforcement official told Associated Press on Thursday that authorities had connected Nakoula to a man using the pseudonym of Sam Bacile who claimed earlier to be writer and director of the film.
Violent protests set off by the film in Libya played a role in mob attacks in Benghazi that killed US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American officials. US Embassy gates in Cairo were breached by protesters and demonstrations against American missions spread to Yemen on Thursday and on Friday to several other countries.
Nakoula pleaded no contest in 2010 to federal bank fraud charges in California, was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison in 2010 and ordered not to use computers or the internet for five years without approval from his probation officer.
The questioning of Nakoula, who was pictured being escorted to a police car by several deputies with a scarf around his face, comes as Libyan investigators disclosed that they were hunting a group of approximately a dozen armed militants they blame for the killing last week of Stevens in Benghazi.
