LOS ANGELES: A lawyer for the man behind the “Innocence of Muslims” video denied late on Wednesday that his client was to blame for a wave of violence across the Middle East, as he appeared in court for a second time.
Attorney Steven Seiden said US congressional hearings in Washington would shed more light on the cause of the unrest that killed a number of people, including the US ambassador to Libya. “My client was not the cause of the violence in the Middle East. Clearly it was pre-planned, that was just an excuse and a trigger point,” said the lawyer for Mark Basseley Youssef, 55.
“As you know, there (are) congressional hearings going on now as to the source of the real violence in the Middle East,” he said after the brief court hearing in Los Angeles. When the violence erupted, “the press, the president, secretary of state were blaming my client for the violence in the Mideast, and then a week later we learned that it was all pre-planned attacks to coincide with 9/11.”
Youssef — previously listed as Nakoula Basseley Nakoula — was handcuffed, shackled at the waist and clad in a white jumpsuit, meaning he is under protective custody at a detention centre next to the downtown LA courthouse.
The anti-Islam film sparked a wave of anti-US protests in a number of countries that cost several lives and saw mobs set US missions, schools and businesses ablaze. On September 11, the anniversary of the Al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington, US ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed in an attack on the US consulate in Benghazi. AFP
