LOS ANGELES: The man behind the anti-Islam video blamed for sparking deadly protests in the Muslim world was jailed in the US for a year on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) for breaching the terms of his probation for a previous offense.

Mark Basseley Youssef, 55, will serve the sentence in a US federal prison after he admitted four allegations of using false identities—a violation of the terms of his probation for a bank fraud conviction in 2010.

He had faced up to two years behind bars, but four other charges were dropped as part of a plea deal.

Youssef was identified as the main man behind Innocence of Muslims, an amateurish film depicting the Prophet Mohammed as a thuggish deviant, which triggered a wave of violent protests that left dozens dead in September.

The video was also linked to the September 11 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi in which US ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed.

In February 2009, a federal indictment accused Youssef and others of fraudulently obtaining the identities and Social Security numbers of customers at several Wells Fargo branches in California and withdrawing $860 from them.

He was jailed for 21 months and ordered not to use computers or the Internet for five years without authorization, and also banned from using fictitious names during his supervised release.

Youssef was arrested in September for eight probation violations. At a hearing last month he denied all counts, but on Wednesday (local time) he admitted to four, in return for the other four being set aside.

US District Judge Christina Snyder said that Youssef, who has already spent five weeks in custody, must spend 12 months behind bars, followed by four years of supervised release.

Youssef was previously listed as Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, and known as Sam Bacile when the protests about the video emerged.

Assistant US Attorney Robert Dugdale said that Youssef had “betrayed” the actors involved in Innocence of Muslims by not telling them he was a “recently released convicted felon.”

The Egyptian-born Coptic Christian also deceived them by dubbing anti-Islamic dialogue over their lines after the movie was shot.

AFP