Cleared of criminal raps, alleged ISIS recruiter deported over other violations

The alleged ISIS recruiter that the Department of Justice (DOJ) cleared of charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives has recently been deported to Egypt over other violations.

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) on Tuesday announced that Egyptian national Fehmi Lassoued, who was identified as Tunisian in earlier reports, was flown out of the country on October 6 and was later taken into government custody in Cairo.

Despite the dismissal of criminal cases against the 33-year-old foreigner, the BI said it found that Lassoued had violated Philippine immigration laws by submitting "false information" in his working visa application, using an "altered" passport, and for being an "undesirable alien" due to his alleged terrorist links.

BI investigation purportedly revealed that Lassoued's "declared employer in his working visa petition was found to be fictitious and that his Tunisian passport was fraudulently altered," the bureau said.

Lassoued was also allegedly found to be using aliases, including Haytham/Haytam Abdulhamid Yusof, Haitam Abdel Hamid Ahmed Youssef, and Youssef Haitham Abdelhamid, and was supposedly referred to in previous media reports as John Rasheed Lassoned.

Lassoued was ordered deported and barred from re-entering the Philippines last September 6, the BI said.

Alleged to be an ISIS recruiter, negotiator for local government officials in Syria and Turkey, and a commander at the Syria-Turkey border, Lassoued was arrested in the Philippines last February together with his Filipina partner.

Allegedly seized during the operation were a caliber .45 Para Ordinance pistol, ammunition and a magazine, suspected bomb components, electronic devices and the couple's passports.

The Philippine National Police lodged a complaint against them for illegal possession of firearms and explosives before the DOJ. A government prosecutor dismissed the complaint for lack of merit in March.

CCTV footage later revealed Lassoued was arrested near a garden at Ayala Triangle One, contrary to the police line that he and his girlfriend, Anabel Salipada, were apprehended at their apartment.

The video also showed Salipada alone being ushered out of the apartment unit at the time of the purported arrest.

In the DOJ resolution that dismissed the complaint, Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Peter Ong said the pistol allegedly recovered from the apartment was fake.

The DOJ also said the photos of alleged evidence did not include the respondents nor the arresting officers, and that two of the photos of the suspect and the evidence were taken in a place other than their apartment unit.

Moreso, Lassoued and Salipada were found to have undergone medical examination at two places at two separate occasions, suggesting "that they were arrested in separate places at different time." —KBK, GMA News