Anti-Islam filmmaker appears in court

LOS ANGELES: A California man behind an anti-Islam film that stoked violent protests in the Muslim world appeared in court in Los Angeles yesterday for a hearing.
The man, known publicly as Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, has been in federal custody since late last month and was due to appear before a US district court judge under his legal name, Mark Basseley Youssef, court papers showed.
The film sparked a torrent of anti-American unrest in Egypt, Libya and dozens of other Muslim countries last month. The violence coincided with an attack on US diplomatic facilities in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including the US ambassador to Libya.
US authorities, as outrage against the film mounted, said they were not investigating the film itself. But prosecutors have said they could seek to have Youssef, 55, sent back to prison for up to two years if he is found to have violated his probation.
Under the terms of his release from prison last year, Youssef is barred from using aliases without the permission of a probation officer and was restricted from accessing the Internet. He is facing eight possible probation violations, including the use of aliases, prosecutors said.
Youssef was ordered held without bail last month following a brief hearing in which prosecutors accused him of violating probation, and he has since been held at a high-rise federal jail in downtown Los Angeles.