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Mystery surrounds the identity of the maker of the Innocence Of Muslims film, which sparked the violence, amid claims that Jewish director “Sam Bacile” is an alias for an Egyptian Coptic Christian convicted of fraud in the US.

A man calling himself Sam Bacile gave a telephone interview to the Associated Press claiming to be the director, producer and writer of the film and said he had gone into hiding, fearing for his safety.

Now the US news agency has established that there is no record of a Mr Bacile, and that telephone numbers trace back to Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, who lives in California.

He denied that he directed the film when approached by AP, saying he knew the film-maker and had only helped produce it to highlight the suffering of his fellow Christians in Egypt.

Federal court papers show Mr Nakoula’s aliases include Nicola Bacily, Erwin Salameh and others. In 2010 he admitted federal bank charges and was given a 21-month prison sentence and ordered to pay $790,000 in compensation.

Pastor Terry Jones, notorious for burning copies of the koran in Florida on the ninth anniversary of 9/11, said he had spoken to the film’s director, adding: “Sam Bacile, that is not his real name.”

The film’s cast and crew issued a statement claiming they were misled about the project and said some of their dialogue was crudely dubbed during post-production: “The entire cast and crew are extremely upset.

"We are 100 per cent not behind this film and were grossly misled about its intent and purpose. We are shocked by the drastic rewrites of the script and lies that were told to all involved.”