The man behind the film The Innocence of Muslims has been jailed for a year in the USA after admitting to violating terms of his release from an earlier conviction. Let’s be clear; this isn’t anything to do with message of The Innocence of Muslims film itself, which caused rioting and protest on a global scale after its depiction of the prophet Muhammed as a womanizer and paedophile. According to the Los Angeles Times, Mark Basseley Youssef was under a federal probation program known as supervised release after a 2010 conviction on bank and credit card fraud, in which he was accused of causing $800,000 in losses.

In court yesterday (November 7, 2012), Youssef admitted to four violations, including lying to his probation officer and using fake names. Prosecutors dropped four other counts in exchange including allegations that Youssef lied to federal authorities in telling them his role in the film's production was limited to writing the script.

Youssef had been arrested again in September though, owing to the content of the film’s script, although officials stressed that it played no part in their decisions in this trial. "I'm not going to say much about the movie because he's not here because of the content of the movie," Assistant U.S. Atty. Robert Dugdale said.