[1][7][8][9][10] On July 2, 2012, a "Sam Bacile",[11] who was later identified as Nakoula, posted English-language promotional trailers for Innocence of Muslims on YouTube.
[12][13] On September 27, 2012, U.S. federal authorities stated that Nakoula had been arrested in Los Angeles and charged with violating terms of his probation.
Prosecutors stated that the violations included making false statements regarding his role in the film and his use of the alias "Sam Bacile".
[16] In a September 2012 interview with Voice of America's Arabic-language station, Radio Sawa, he stated he was a graduate of the Faculty of Arts at Cairo University and a researcher of Islamic thought.
[22] The Daily Beast reported that Nakoula was arrested by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in 1997 after being pulled over and found to be in possession of ephedrine, hydroiodic acid and $45,000 in cash.
[33][34] Nakoula has been identified as a key figure behind Innocence of Muslims, an anti-Islamic video posted on YouTube that disparages Muhammad, and that has been blamed for sparking demonstrations and riots in the Middle East, North Africa,[1] and other regions.
After protests against Innocence of Muslims began on 11 September 2012,[35] a man who identified himself as "Sam Bacile", the YouTube poster of the videos, called the Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal.
[39][46] Prosecutors alleged that some of the violations included making false statements regarding his role in the film and his use of the alias "Sam Bacile".
[14] On November 28, 2012, an Egyptian court, prior to the ouster of the Muslim Brotherhood-dominated government of Mohamed Morsi, sentenced Nakoula, along with several other Coptic Christians, and anti-Islam preacher Terry Jones, all to death, in absentia, for defaming Islam; all of these individuals, however, live outside Egypt.
[50] On 26 September 2013, he was released from the halfway house to the custody of Pastor Wiley Drake of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, California.