Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the US man behind anti-Islam film Innocence of Muslims that led to mass protests in the Middle East has been sentenced to a year in jail for probation violations.
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula was sentenced by a judge in California after admitting four violations which stem from a 2010 conviction for fraud.
None of the charges was connected with the content of the controversial film, Innocence of Muslims.
Dozens of people died in the Middle East in protests over the film.
US District Judge Christina Snyder said Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, must spend 12 months in prison followed by four years of supervised release.
Prosecutors had been seeking a two-year sentence.
After the 2010 conviction, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula had served most of a 21-month jail sentence for using more than a dozen aliases and opening about 60 bank accounts to conduct a cheque fraud scheme, prosecutors said.
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, Innocence of Muslims filmmaker, in jail for probation violations
The Los Angeles Times said that it was while he was in prison that he read the Koran, looking for ways to criticize Islam.
On his release he was barred from using computers or the internet for five years without approval from his probation officer.
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, who was arrested in September, also goes by the name of Sam Bacile, Nicola Bacily and Mark Basseley Yousseff and is believed to be an Egyptian-American Coptic Christian.
US authorities have said they believe Nakoula Basseley Nakoula was the person behind the controversial film, but have not said whether he was the person who posted it on the internet.
Muslims around the world took to the streets in protest, outraged by the film’s portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad.
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Pakistani Imam Khalid Chishti has been remanded in custody, accused of planting pages of the Koran among burnt pages in the bag of a Christian girl held for blasphemy.
The girl was detained two weeks ago near the capital Islamabad after an angry mob demanded she be punished.
Prosecutors say Imam Khalid Chishti will himself face charges of blasphemy.
The girl, named as Rimsha, is said to be about 14 and to have learning difficulties.
Imam Khalid Chishti has been remanded in custody, accused of planting pages of the Koran among burnt pages in the bag of a Christian girl held for blasphemy
Imam Khalid Chishti allegedly told a witness, after tampering with the girl’s bag, that this was a “way of getting rid of Christians”, a prosecutor said.
The case has sparked international condemnation.
Earlier this week, a court extended Rimsha’s detention at a maximum-security prison by a further two weeks.
Her father has said he fears for his daughter’s life and for the safety of his family. He has called on Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to pardon her.
Rimsha’s parents have been taken into protective custody following threats, and many other Christian families have fled the neighborhood.
Pakistan’s strict blasphemy laws are often used to settle personal vendettas, correspondents say.
Last year two leading politicians were assassinated after speaking out against the legislation.
Imam Khalid Chishti appeared in the Islamabad court with a white blindfold and shackled hands.
There was a large police presence as he was ushered into the building.
“The imam was arrested after his deputy Maulvi Zubair and two others told a magistrate he added pages from the Koran to the burnt pages brought to him by a witness,” an investigator Munir Hussain Jaffri said.
He said Maulvi Zubair and some others had told the imam not to interfere, urging him to “give the evidence to the police as he got it”.
According to Munir Hussain Jaffri, Imam Khalid Chishti had told them: “You know this is the only way to expel the Christians from this area.”
The investigator said the cleric had been arrested at his home on Saturday under Pakistan’s blasphemy law.
“By putting these pages in the ashes he also committed desecration of the Holy Koran and he is being charged with blasphemy,” he said.
The girl’s lawyer told AFP news agency that Rimsha “should be acquitted immediately”, as it had been “fully proven that it was a conspiracy”.
General John R. Allen, the US commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan, has apologized over reports that foreign troops had “improperly disposed” of copies of the Koran.
In a statement General John R. Allen ordered a full investigation.
“When we learned of these actions, we immediately intervened and stopped them,” he said.
Reports of the alleged Koran burning have led to a large protest outside the Bagram air base.
In his statement, General John R. Allen said that the investigation would examine whether troops at Bagram air base “improperly disposed of a large number of Islamic religious materials which included Korans”.
“The materials recovered will be properly handled by appropriate religious authorities,” the statement said.
“We are thoroughly investigating the incident and we are taking steps to ensure this does not ever happen again. I assure you… I promise you … this was not intentional in any way.”
General John R. Allen went to and offer his “sincere apologies for any offence this may have caused”, including to the president of Afghanistan, the Afghan government and “the noble people of Afghanistan”.
In April last year at least one person was killed and 18 injured in successive days of protests in Afghanistan over the burning of a Koran in the US.
