As a wave protests spread worldwide against an anti-Islam film posted on the Internet, US sheriffs in California took a man linked to the provocative video for questioning on September 15. Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, voluntarily left his home in the early hours of Saturday morning for the meeting in a sheriff’s station in the Los Angeles suburb of Cerritos, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said. He was led out of his home by several sheriff’s deputies, his face shielded by a scarf, hat and sunglasses.
Furious protests targeting symbols of US influence flared in cities across the Muslim world on Friday in retaliation for a crude film made in the United States. At least six protesters have died in Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon and Sudan in similar protests against the film, with police there battling to defend American missions from mobs of stone-throwers.
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.