Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, who taken into to police custody for questioning on Saturday over his involvement in the anti-Islamic film "Innocence of Muslims" that has sparked a violent uproar across the Middle East, might be in hiding according to recent reports.
Nakoula, 55, who was initially known under the alias name of Sam Bacile, was taken by the Los Angeles police to the LA Sheriff's station where he was questioned over his probation from his conviction of financial fraud in 2011. According to the LA Sheriff, authorities are investigating whether Nakoula violated his five-year probation. After the questioning, police delivered Nakoula to an undisclosed location.
"He is gone. We don't know where he went...He said he is not going back to his home," said Steve Whitmore, spokesman for the Los Angeles County sheriff's department told the Huffington Post.
The film was set to responsible for last week's deadly attacks on the US embassy in the city of Benghazi in Libya in which three embassy staff members and the US ambassador Christopher Stevens have been killed has been attributed to Islamist fundamentalist angered by a US film which derided the Muslim religion and prophet Mohammad.
As of this week the protests have spread across the Muslim world, from Egypt to Afghanistan and even Indonesia and Pakistan.
According to reports, the movie was created by an amateur filmmaker on a budget of around $5 million, most of the money coming from 100 unidentified Jewish donors, according to the Wall Street Journal. The film is called, "Innocence of Muslims," and was posted on various Internet sites, including YouTube.
The movie was initially said to be made by an Israeli-American named Sam Bacile. Bacile is 52 years old and works as a real-estate developer according to the Wall Street Journal. Bacile told the WSJ, "Islam is a cancer," he said in a telephone interview from his home. "The movie is a political movie. It's not a religious movie."
However, recent reports suggest that Sam Bacile was merely an alias name and the identity of the man has not yet been confirmed.
The movie was endorsed by the same US pastor who became infamous for encouraging the burning of the Quran. Tony Jones has become notorious for voicing his anti-Islamist sentiments. In the movie, the Prophet is mocked, being depicted as scatterbrained, a child molester as well as a killer.
The video created an uproar among fundamentalists in Libya as well as Egypt. US embassies in both Benghazi and Cairo have been under mob attacks Tuesday. Late Tuesday evening, US ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others were declared dead as a result of these attacks.
President Obama, along with US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, condemned the attacks as "outrageous," as reported by NBC.
Stevens was the US ambassador to Libya since June 2012. He was 52. Sean Smith has, a US veteran of the State Department has been identified as one of the other three who were killed in the attacks. The remaining two have yet to be identified.
Watch the trailor of the movie here:
