Nakoula Basseley Nakoula was arrested yesterday in California on the charge of a parole violation. Nakoula is the man behind the controversial anti-Muslim film “Innocence Of Muslims”, which has spurred violent protests in Pakistan and is currently banned from YouTube in Egypt and Libya. Some conservative commentators such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity have suggested that his arrest is an attempt by Obama to punish him for exercising his constitutionally protected free speech.
Nakoula was arrested after it was revealed that he has used at least 17 aliases–and gave one of them when he appeared in court yesterday–which is a violation of his five-year parole for bank fraud. He was arrested in 2010 for the crime. He is currently being held without bail because it is believed he is a flight risk.
“The court has a lack of trust in this defendant at this time,” Judge Suzanne Segal said.
If Nakoula faces new charges stemming from the probation violation, he could spend up to two years in jail. Since the purported outrage over his 14-minute film trailer, he has been in hiding, and hid his face with a scarf while being escorted to and from the courtroom. The film portrays the Prophet Muhammed as a child molester, among other things.
The Obama Administration blamed the film for sparking a spontaneous protest at the American Consulate in Libya on September 11th, which resulted in four deaths, including that of Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Eventually, it was admitted by Obama and his Administration that it was a pre-planned terrorist attack by al-Qaeda and that the film was simply a useful pretext to justify the murders. Romney has attacked Obama for so quickly placing the blame on this film instead of telling the world that America has the right to free speech, even speech that many people disagree with.
