Two American fugitives wanted by US federal authorities for assault and battery charges have been arrested by the Bureau of Immigration in separate operations.
In a statement issued today (Thursday, March 7) BI Commissioner Jaime Morente identified the two men as William Schweizer, aged 32, who was arrested at the Tivoli Garden Residences in Mandaluyong on Tuesday and Apollo Cioffi, 46, who was apprehended inside SM Baguio last Thursday (March 1).
“Like all the other foreign fugitives whom we have arrested in the past, we will deport these two undesirable aliens and ban them from re-entering the Philippines. They have no place in our country, as their presence here poses a risk to our people,” he said.
Schweizer is the subject of an arrest warrant issued by a circuit court in Broward County, Florida, after he was charged with ‘felony battery by strangulation’.
Under Florida statutes, felony battery and domestic battery by strangulation occurs when a person actually and intentionally touches another person against their will and causes them great bodily harm, permanent disability or permanent disfigurement.
Meanwhile, Cioffi is wanted by authorities in California for assault. A superior court in San Francisco has issued a warrant for his arrest.
The BI said that the US Embassy did not give a detailed account of his alleged crime but California’s penal code law defines assault as a misdemeanour and as an “attempt to a violent injury on someone else”.
Bobby Raquepo, the head of the BI’s Fugitive Search Unit, said that both American fugitives had also overstayed their visas and were now undocumented aliens as their passports have now been revoked by the US State Department.
He also said that Schweizer had been in the country since July 2015 while Cioffi had hidden in the country since March 10 last year.
The pair are now being held at the BI’s detention centre in Bicutan, Taguig City, awaiting deportation.
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