Nakoula Basseley Nakoula

Early life and past criminal convictions Nakoula was born in Egypt to Coptic Christian parents a man who identified himself as "Sam Bacile", the YouTube poster of the videos, called the Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal.

On September 27, 2012, U.S. federal authorities arrested Nakoula in Los Angeles charging eight counts of probation violation. 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". None of the charges relate to his use of the Internet. Pakistani railways minister Ghulam Ahmad Bilour privately offered a $100,000 bounty for the death of Nakoula.

In August 2013, Nakoula was released from prison to serve his remaining sentence in a halfway house, and then to be on probation for the next four years. 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.