The Philippine government has ordered the deportation of two American fugitives wanted in the United States for charges related to pornography and sexual abuse involving children.
James Sweeney, 60, was flown out of the country last June 16 aboard a Continental Airlines to Guam en route to the US mainland where he is being tried before a Florida court, according to Immigration chief Marcelino Libanan.
The other suspect, Jeffrey Dana Pounders, 49, would be deported on Wednesday, June 23, on the basis of an arrest warrant issued against him by a grand jury in Jefferson Country, Alabama, Libanan said.
Libanan said Sweeney is wanted on charges of child pornography and engaging in illicit sexual conduct while Pounders was accused of child molestation for allegedly sexually abusing a minor.
It was not immediately known when Sweeney and Pounders arrived in the Philippines.
The BI board of commissioners issued summary deportation orders against the two after being informed that the US State Department had already revoked their passports, making them undocumented aliens. Since 2009, the BI-Interpol operatives were responsible for the arrest of some 20 American fugitives.
Earlier, the US Department of Justice through Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Robert Mueller III commended Libanan and members of the BI Interpol unit for their assistance in locating and apprehending US fugitives hiding in the Philippines. — KBK/RSJ
