A California filmmaker and six others said to be behind the anti-Islam film Innocence Of Muslims have been sentenced to death in absentia by an Egyptian court. “The seven accused persons were convicted of insulting the Islamic religion through participating in producing and offering a movie that insults Islam and its prophet,” Egyptian Judge Saif al-Nasr Soliman said today, according to broadcast and wire service reports. The film, which ridiculed the Prophet Muhammad, sparked rioting, violence and deaths in 30 countries in the Mideast, Europe and Asia since it was released in September. Earlier this month, filmmaker Mark Basseley Youssef (aka Nakoula Basseley Nakoula) was sentenced to a year in prison in California for violating the terms of his probation stemming from a 2010 bank fraud conviction.

Related: Pakistani Islamist Demands Obama Hand Over ‘Innocence Of Muslims’ Filmmaker