Tried 'in absentia'

'Innocence of Muslims' filmmaker sentenced to death in Egypt

Sentenced to death in Egypt ... Mark Basseley Youssef aka Nakoula Basseley Nikoula. Photo: Reuters

the Age,

30 November, 2012

The Californian man behind the Innocence of Muslims online movie that triggered violence in the Middle East was sentenced to death on Wednesday in absentia in an Egyptian court.

Mark Basseley Youssef was among the seven Egyptian Coptic Christians and a Florida-based American pastor sentenced on charges linked to the low-budget, anti-Islam film.

The case was seen as largely symbolic because the defendants, most of whom live in the United States, are all outside Egypt and unlikely to ever serve the sentences.

The charges were brought in September during a wave of public outrage in Egypt over the amateur film, which was produced by Youssef, who lived in Cerritos, California.

Parts of Innocence of Muslims were posted online, and the movie portrays the Prophet Muhammad as a fraud and womaniser.

Egypt's official news agency said the court found the defendants guilty of harming national unity, insulting and publicly attacking Islam and spreading false information — charges that carry the death sentence.

Youssef, who also used the alias Nakoula Basseley Nikoula, among other names, was sentenced in a Californian court this month to one year in federal prison for probation violations on a bank-fraud case.

Youssef, 55, admitted he had used several false names in violation of his probation order and obtained a driver's licence under a false name.